Condemned to be a Hero: The Four Sword in Termina
by LinkGotAShotgun
Summary: Link's grandson, Alex can't escape the destiny of his bloodline, and finds himself trapped in Termina all alone, and discovers that the only way back home is forge the world's most powerful weapon: The Four Sword. Epic sword battles inside! Rated T for violence and minor sexual content.
1. Ch1: Academy? Flip that shit!

**I had this on my head for months and decided to write it because it´s pretty entertaining this writing thing and even more entertaining is the story itself.  
**

**First of all, go easy on me, it may be some grammatical errors here and there, but that´s something to be expected since english is not my first language, but now i'm getting better over the time. I think that this one ended up being pretty good, but im the writer, not the reader , i hope you like it!**

******mehs and yehs are intentional**

* * *

"Alex!, get up or you´ll be late for your first day on the Knight´s Academy!" my mom said, instantly waking me up.

"What? …it´s today already?" I said, while sobbing my eyes, letting them get used to the morning light.

"Yeah, it's today, get dressed right now or you will be late!"

"Ok, (yawn) thanks for waking me up, mum" I said while taking off the blanket that covered me and moved into sitting position.

Today was very important, it was what was going to be my first day on the Knight´s Academy on Castle Town, there go those who will become, well…knights, my mom and dad were waiting this day for like years, but in my opinion, I really don´t need to be on any academy, my grandpa says that I'm very skilled with the sword. But I'm not opposing, the more I learn about swordplay, the better.

As soon as my mom closed the door, I immediately got dressed, I put on my regular yellowish sleeved shirt that my grandma did for me, it has some light blue patterns, it says "Lon" everywhere and it´s very comfy, then I put on my usual brown pants and my dark brown boots.

I looked myself in the mirror just to see my pair of dark blue eyes, so dark, that people sometimes doesn´t even see any color in particular until they look me directly to the eyes. And my usual spiky black hair, I don´t even know why I have a comb, my hair will always remains the same, It doesn´t matter how much I try to comb my hair, it will always remain spiky. But those thoughts were quickly interrupted when my little brother, Nodro, suddenly opened the door.

"Hey! Mom says that the breakfast is ready!, come down now!"

"Oh yeah? I'll get there first!" I said in playful tone, and started sprinting towards the door.

"No, you won´t!" he said while we started running downstairs, racing each other to the dining table.

I always liked play with my little brother, but damn!, he´s fast!, despite me being 17 years old, my little brother with only 11 ran like an hylian bullet.

The little bastard got first to the dining table just by one second, practically jumping to his chair in order to win, crap! I was very close to win this time.

"Ha ha, I won again brother!" he said while victoriously pointing at himself with a wide grin.

"You'll see, I won´t lose the next time!" I said while sitting on my chair.

I knew I was lying, I don´t really recall any time that I beaten my brother running, he always won. This time I did it to wake me up, but other times that we did it just for fun, he always won too.

My mom came with the food and it´s delicious smell that was spreading from the kitchen.

It was three scrambled eggs, and I devoured them in less than 2 minutes, and drank my glass of milk in two large sips. I always eat too fast, though I'm thin, I eat like a pig hehe.

"You finished? Now please go get ready for the academy while I get Epona ready, okay?" My mom said after taking a sip from her glass of milk.

"Of course" I said while I stood up from the chair and started walking to my room, leaving my mom and brother still eating.

Epona is my 12 year old mare; she has brown hair and a white mane, very uncommon around Hyrule as far as I know, my dad gave her to me when she born and I took care for her since then.

She has her temper; she not always pays attention to what I say to her, but I know that she will always remain loyal to me. She is almost exactly the same as her mom, who is also named Epona, and I think that her grandma was ALSO named Epona, and the one before too…

I got to my room to get prepared. I decided to take with me my endless pouch; my grandpa gave it to me when I was 9 years old. At first I was fascinated about it, when he gave it to me he said that the misuse of this bag could end up in the destruction of the entire universe or something like that, but I really wasn´t paying attention to him because I was distracted filling up the bag with anything that was at hand.

"Now let´s see what we have in here…

deku seeds? I have a slingshot but I rarely use it…

what´s this? Oh! A bottle of milk? It must have been here for years! I wonder if… sniff sniff… yeah, it smells horrible, but I could use the bottle later on…

Arrows? I don´t even have a bow, but I could use them, I mean it´s an endless pouch…

A deku stick? Ok…

A blue rupee! That´s kind of nice…

A bomb? useful…

Ooooooh! an old Hylian shield? How does this got here? It´s all rusty now, but I could get it repaired later…

Ah… my old blue ocarina, I could play it when I'm bored"

I got out 150 rupees from my secret hiding spot, under the couch. It was very uncomfortable sleep on that bed because of the pointy gems scattered there, but I didn't found a better hiding spot for my savings.

"Well, I think it´s all I need for now; I could buy anything that I need later on in Castle Town anyway"

But I was forgetting something very important, something that I really needed.

I walked out of my room, feeling weird, like if something it´s missing…

What could that be?

Then, the truth came to me when I was in the middle of the stairs, just to get sure; I raised my left hand behind my shoulder just to encounter with…nothing.

I was forgetting my sword! What was I going to do in a knight´s academy without a sword? How stupid from me.

I face palmed for myself while sighting and quickly got to my room and saw my sword hanging in the wall next to me in plain sight, like saying:"Hey, I'm here! Hurry up! Pick me up!"

My father crafted this sword especially for me when I got 15 years, he said: "A man of your age needs to know how to defend himself." And taught me how to wield it, you know, basic stuff. But it was my grandpa the one who taught me how to fight. I know well the responsibility involved to wield a sword, and that´s why my grandpa taught me how to fight on the first place, I shall use it only to defend myself and the others around me.

It´s blade measured 17 inches plus 5 from its hilt, quite big. Its blade is silvery, its hilt has two peaks at the sides, one side said "Alex" and the other side said "Lon". (Yeah, my family loves to put our surname everywhere) Its handle has a white lace for better grip. And last, but not the least, its epic blue case.

It just looks so badaas…I don´t even know how I was forgetting it, this sword is my pride.

I put on the sword´s shoulder strap and placed the sword firmly on my back just the enough to be comfortable.

"Well, I think this is all I need, I better get going now" I said somewhat anxious.

I was all ready, so I walked out of my room and got outside and headed for the stable, where I was going to pick Epona and get going.

I opened the stable door and all the horses threw glances at me, anxious to get out to the ranch field, but the cows, always bored were like:"Hey look, it´s the boy" "Meh, fuck that shit, just continue mooing randomly"

At the middle of the stable my mom has just done putting the chair to Epona.

"You are ready?" she said after she caressed Epona´s back, who was calm and docile.

"Yup, I'm all ready now, mum" I said while grabbing Epona´s reins and we walked outside.

"Hey, where´s dad anyways?, I haven´t seen him in the whole morning" I said, wondering where could he be.

"Your dad is in the academy, he had to pay the inscription today, didn´t he told you before?"

"Oh, that´s right! Maybe if I go right now, I could have a chance of see him around there"

At that moment, my brother came out of the house.

"Brother! Are you leaving now?" He said with his well known I-want-this face.

"Well, yeah why?" I knew he was going to ask me something.

"I just wanted to ask you that, when I have my own sword, could you teach me those cool tricks that you do?, if you do that, won´t have to go to the academy!" he was beaming with innocence

"Hehe, it doesn´t work like that, brother, I'm going to the academy to become a knight at the service for Hyrule, but if you want to know those cool tricks, then ask grandpa!, he´s the one who taught me all!"

"Nodro, you finished washing up the dishes already?" My mom interrupted.

"Uh, yeah mum"

"Well, then, now please go feed up the horses. Now that Alex won´t be here all day it will be more work for each of us, okay?"

"YES, mom…" he said in annoyed tone

As he left towards the storehouse, I was a little glad that he didn´t asked for any of my things, like he always do. I mounted on top of Epona, totally ready to leave, but instead I watched the sky, calm and blue, as always. Watching the sky for me it´s like a kind of way to relax, is it always there, the same as ever yet so peaceful.

"Ok, I´m going to Castle Town right now"

"Be careful, son, I have a bad feeling, but just go with caution" She said in a worriedly tone.

"A bad feeling? Like what?"

"An intuition, but, don´t worry, just be careful, alright?" She said in the same tone, but now, trying to cover it up.

I don´t and maybe never understand my mother´s intuitions, but I know she´s trying to don´t make worry about something that she feels that´s gonna happen so, I´m going to follow her game, if something bad it´s gonna happen, then I don´t want to find out until it happens.

"Ok, if you say so, I'll be careful, don´t worry; I will come back in the afternoon!"I said as turned Epona towards the ranch entrance.

"Be careful son!" As she said that, I started galloping towards Hyrule Field.

"Brother, wait!" My little brother shouted in the distance.

I knew it.

"Yes! You can have mah slingshot!" I shouted at the entrance of the ranch.

Far away I heard a "YAY!"

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hyrule Field~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ok, Epona, let´s go! It´s not that of a long trip!" I said with enthusiasm while galloping.

"Neigh!" (If isn't, then you just walk there by yourself, you lazy bum!)

I silently, galloped around the space between the ranch and Castle Town, with my left hand on the chair to get a better grip, and my right hand in the air to keep the balance.

Most of the time while I'm on Epona I don´t think about anything else than reach my destination, always fully focused on my way and the surroundings.

And for that didn´t got surprised when I heard someone yelling not too far away, it wasn't someone I knew, I didn´t recognize that voice, so I turned around and I saw a small figure, no more farther away than 30 yards.

"Mister!, could you help me out here!" I reached to hear.

I turned Epona into this person´s direction and reached to him in less than 20 seconds. Now that I´m in front of him I could see It was just a child, clothed in green, with a green pointy hat that covered his eyes and most of his orange hair… estrange.

"Mister, I need your help!, I need to get back to the forest soon!"

"The forest?, kid, why would you need to get to there? Where are your parents?" I said while looking at the sides.

"Mister, please! I'm a kokiri! I need to get to the forest quickly! My life depends on it!"

Kokiri? Ah! Now I remember! This Is a Kokiri kid! My grandpa told me all about them. They live in the forest at the southeast of the ranch, in little treehouses, they never grow up, and if they leave their forest they will… die.

When I understood the seriousness of the situation, I put aside all the academy crap. I cannot help but aiding people in needs, stranger or not, I couldn´t leave this little guy to die in the field, I could be just a little late on my first day on the academy, that´s all, not that I don´t have a good reason to do it.

The academy can wait, it´s not like it´s going to go anywhere, it doesn´t?

I told him to get on Epona, I gave him a hand so he could get on top of her. He was lighter than I expected, it didn´t cost me too much effort to help him up. He sat behind me and grabbed my waist so he wouldn´t fall. How does he know how to get a grip from someone on a horse? That doesn´t matter now, I need to get him to the forest quickly.

I turned Epona towards the south, where the forest was in the distance and started galloping towards it.

"Thanks mister, I do not know what would have happened to me without your help" he said in a truly grateful tone.

"Don´t worry about it, I couldn´t just leave you there, anyway my name is Alex"

"Thanks! Mister Alex! My name is Garet."

"Okay, Garet, let´s get you back to the forest!"

A couple of minutes passed as we got closer and closer to the forest, I started wondering how this little guy got out of it. Unlike the zoras, gorons, and heck, even the gerudos, the kokiri don´t have much relation with the hylians, and that is for one single reason: **They can´t go out of the forest**, or else they die, but how exactly? Do they wither or something like that?

I better hurry, I don´t want to find out.

The field ended and the trees began. We finally got to the entrance of the forest.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lost Woods~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've never been on the forest alone, I only been here once when I was little; the kokiri kids didn´t got us well received at first, but once they say my grandpa, they treated us like kings. My grandpa knew well the kokiri but never told me why, and when I asked, he quickly changed the topic, like he was trying to keep it like a secret for himself.

But there´s something missing here… where is its village? It´s not supposed to be right next at the entrance of the forest? Garet is guiding me, he told me to go left instead of forward as I remembered.

Maybe he doesn´t have his house within the kokiri village? I don´t know, and I didn´t asked, just silently followed his directions, here is easy to get lost, every place that we got to looked exactly the same as the one before.

"Forward… left… right… left… forward… left… forward… right… forward… left… forward… forward… right… left… right… right…forward… left… left… forward…" he sounded like he knew his way around this green and thick maze.

We were like that for more than 15 minutes, and I began to worry about the time so I looked skyward to see where were the sun, but I didn´t find it, the trees were so dense, that they were blocking my vision up and at any other side you could think of.

There is when I got a little nervous about the academy; my parents are going to kill me. Even though I don´t know the time, I know that I'm already very late.

But what really worried me, was how the hell I´m going back.

Then I asked myself:

(Why I´m helping getting this kid to his house? Couldn't he just walk since we entered the forest? He´s not in danger of dying now, so why not just leave him here and leave? I mean, he knows his way around here, doesn´t he?)

Those thoughts disappeared because of Garet quickly jumping off from Epona. That sudden move surprised me.

"What…?" I said in reaction.

At that moment, any single bit of childishness was erased from his face.

He was just standing there, staring at me rudely, and I was doing the same.

In that moment I felt danger around, so I got my left hand off the chair and I slowly but discreetly was going to draw my sword.

But suddenly, Epona violently lifted the front of her body making a small jump, causing me to fall backwards and hitting my head against the solid ground, nearly breaking my neck.

* * *

The hard hit made me hear a noisy buzzing because of the sudden and hard commotion, and I laid there for like two minutes until I regained my senses, but I didn´t get up, I was listening some voices not too far away, I closed my eyes in order to hear better.

"Yeah, I think it´s a swordsman" I recognized that voice immediately; it was Garet, but now talking with a lower and harder pitch, manlier.

"Are you serious? He´s dressed like a simple rancher" another voice said, with an even lower pitch.

"Do you think he has something valuable?" a different voice said.

"Meh, that sword looks pretty damn fine, don´t you think?" definitively said Garet.

"Yeah, and we could sell the horse for a large sum" another unknown voice said.

Shit, bandits, at least four of them… so this was my mother intuition?

Man I can´t believe that the little guy tricked me like that!

(What to do, think think…fight? Too risky, there are many of them… I can´t let them grab my things and leave either…I could fight, but it's too risky to fight four people at once…)

"Go grab his sword Donpa, but don´t wake him up"

"Yeah, I'll try" That Donpa guy said, and I could hear his steps coming closer to me.

Think Fast, fight or nothing.

When he was close enough, still on the floor, I reached mi sword, unsheathed it and slashed his

torso, cutting his dirty tunic and leaving him wounded.

"AAWW YOU ASSHOLE!" he shouted in pain, falling on the ground, covering with his arms his sliced skin, drawing the attention of all.

Fight

Immediately after that, I got up, and a fat bandit was running towards me, trying to tackle me.

When he threw all his weight just inches away from me, I jumped sideways, avoiding him, then he fell by his own weight. He was so fat that couldn´t got up by himself.

I turned to see the other two bandits; one of them was that dwarf of Garet.

I ran towards them, sword in hand and anger on my eyes.

Garet ran away, but the other guy got out a knife out of his belt. I took battle position in front of him, and he did the same. I threw a pair of slashes but he blocked the two of them with his knife, he knew well how to use it, he then threw a stab which I evaded easily by jumping backwards, he then tried a horizontal slice, which I countered easily with my sword, making his knife fall away.

He looked hopeless, and glanced at me wide eyed, waiting for a blow, but then Garet screamed:

"Lunpa, let´s get the shit out of here fast!" He said while on top of Epona

(Quite a big mouth for a dwarf…wait, what! He´s on top of Epona?)

That got my attention the enough to turn my head to him, what a stupid mistake from me.

Because of that, "Lunpa" tackled me with enough force to make me fell, what a coward move.

As I was standing up, Lunpa, quickly ran and jumped on top of Epona, threatening to steal her.

"We got this man! We got this by the ass!" Lunpa shouted.

"NO YOU WON´T!" I shouted with an anger that I rarely ever showed. I won´t let them get away with Epona!

Epona was very nervous, when Lunpa jumped on top of her, she lost control of herself and started running aimlessly.

I quickly sheathed my sword and ran toward her before she started to run.

I reached to grab her back left leg with both of my arms, she then started to run madly, every time that her leg stepped on the ground it hit all my body against the ground, but I grabbed her with all my strength to get a better grip. I knew that this was a bad idea, but I won´t let them steal Epona, I won´t. Even if this action was pointless, I couldn´t just let them get away.

"Man get off!" Garet said while trying to kick me.

"NEIGH! NEIGH!" (Man get this shit off me!, get these guys off from me!)

I hold her leg with all the strength I could summon, but that effort was suddenly hopeless when a rock hit me hard on my head, making me to let go my grip and fell to the ground.

While I was trying to get up, I saw them escaping, and almost disappearing from my sight. They were getting away.

"I WON´T LET YOU!" I screamed and started running like a madman trying to catch them up.

I felt that my blood was boiling, I've never been this angry in my life.

Strangely, my birthmark burned me for a second at that display of anger, but ignored it completely while I ran.

What birthmark you ask? It´s a mark shaped like three triangles arranged together forming a big triangle that I have at the back of my left hand, it is shaped as the legendary Triforce from the goddesses, but those were childish tales that I didn´t believe.

My grandpa and my father have exactly the same mark on the back of its left hands, but my brother has it on his right hand, maybe because he was right?

I ran and ran, trying to catch´em up. I was running so fast, that I could beat my brother.

I wasn´t seeing them at this point. Eventually I got to a space with four stumps, one after another, I wasn´t thinking clear at that time, so just jumped over them one after other, and got to the entrance to the insides of a big tree. It was dark and I couldn´t see very clear, I just kept running.

I ran until I got to an edge, I tried to stop when I saw it, but the inertia of the movement made me fall to the dark bottom anyway.

"Whoa-aaaaahhhhhh!" I shouted while falling down.

* * *

As I fell to the nothingness of the bottom, all the anger was changed to fear; I closed my eyes, hoping that the fall won´t hurt me enough to die.

That hopeless feeling was put aside by some faces in color coming out of the nowhere; they were just floating and passing while more faces showed up and disappearing and repeating the same process. I´m getting crazy?

That thought was forgotten when I splashed in water. And, to my luck, I fell in a deep pond of water, just the deep enough to absorb the fall.

I quickly got out of it and took a look at my surroundings. I could tell that I was still deep inside that tree, with woody walls at every side I see. Then I took a look above from where I fell, there were no ceiling to be seen, just black nothingness, I was really damn lucky to fell exactly on that pond. Then I realized that there were no way to get back from here so I glanced forward and saw two lit torches that illuminated the whole room, at least down here, and between them it were a passage. There were no were else to go, so I walked through it.

I ended in a similar room to the one before, but this one had a wooden bridge, I walked towards it and examined it.

It was crafted from wood; someone made this bridge, which could tell that there has to be people around here…

I saw what was down the bridge; they were big sized flowers, with pink petals.

I crossed the bridge and lifted a wooden door, and in this next room realized that I were in a complex of catacombs, i saw bunch of platforms raising from the black abyss, each platform connected to each other by bridges, which were exactly the same style of wooden planks as the other one before.

I walked through them, trying to not look into the dark bottomless pit.

I walked quietly through each bridge until I saw another passageway covered in shadows; I was going straight to it until I saw a very strange looking tree, withered and very sad looking. I decided to not looking at it for too long, it beamed sadness, so I walked to the dark passage in front of me.

When I got totally covered in the darkness, not long away i saw the end of this passage, now totally man-constructed. But as I got closer, I saw something that I couldn´t believe at first.

(This corridor… it´s all twisted!)

And hell it was, the end of the corridor was twisted 90 degrees clockwise direction.

There´s nowhere else to go, so I walked to it, and for my surprise, with every step I made, the gravity got along with my feet, this was mind blowing, I reached the end of the corridor, hearing cogs spinning and water not too far.

I looked back and saw that where I came before it was the twisted part now.

I better not think too much about it.

The scenario changed drastically, I was inside a engine-based building combined with a sewer.

As I went to examine, I saw that a large gate definitively closed the way I came.

There was no way back from there, so it didn´t bother me in the least bit.

I went to examine this place; there was a river of water flowing from one side to another, and a large cog, spinning because of the stream of water, at the same time, this cog rotated other smaller cogs as well, with each cog going upward.

I went upstairs to see what those cogs moved. I saw a piece of wood spinning in place in the middle of the room, probably rotating another cog up, so I looked up and I was right, another big cog spinning another smaller cogs as well, and this continued until it got too dark for me to see.

I glanced straight and saw some stairs, followed by a pair of large wooden gates.

I was going to pass them, when I felt that someone was staring at me. A cold stare. That cold feeling which makes you feel insecure. I stopped walking and stood there a second and quickly unsheathed my sword and turned back just to see no one.

(Odd… I was sure I felt the presence of someone.…)

I quickly forgot it and passed through the large wooden gates.

"What the fffff…flip?" I said as a totally new environment was surrounding me.

* * *

**well yeh that´s the first chapter! i´ll update constantly.**

**i hope you liked it, please review and let me know what you think because if you do you may get a cookie! just kidding, no, really, constructive criticism is totally welcome.**


	2. Ch2: A helping hand never hurts

**Yay! I'm inspired man! this one came out pretty good in my opinion, but remember, English is not my primary language, so there may be some grammatical errors that i didn't noticed, Word auto corrects itself alot, so don't blame me so hard 'kay?**

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After opening those large and heavy wooden doors, I was quite surprised that front of me was a city full of people walking around.

(What's doing a city in the middle of the forest?)

I took a deep breath and realized that this place smelled nothing like forest, in fact, it smelled the same as Castle Town.

I slowly took a few steps forward, and examined my new surroundings.

At the sides were walls made with bricks with strange green patterns painted on them.

The floor where I was standing was wooden and at its both sides were little pools filled with water that were not deep, in fact, I could see its bottom from where I was standing.

I glanced forward and saw a bunch of merchant posts filled up with people minding their own business. I supposed that I was in the market part of this town.

I walked toward these posts now stepping on a fully paved floor of bricks, and asked a salesman for information.

The merchant was tan and had weird sunglasses on.

"Excuse me, sir" I respectfully said.

"Welcome, what do you need?" He said sitting behind his table.

"Could you please tell me the name of this town? I asked and he raised an eyebrow.

"The name of this town? You are a foreigner, don´t you young man?" he asked me back.

"Certainly, sir"

"Well then, you are in Clock Town, on its south part"

(Clock Town? I've never heard of it before… is this some kind of joke? I never knew another big city In Hyrule besides Clock Town, and as far I knew, neither Labrynna nor Holodrum, countries adjacent to Hyrule, had a city named as that. Did I got out from Hyrule? I don´t know, but I must seriously got far from home.)

I just stood there in that post looking at the ground with my right hand on my chin. And because of that, the salesman got a little angry.

"Are you gonna buy something or not, young man?" The salesman said with an impatient tone.

"Uh?… not really sir, I just came for information" I said as he tracked me off my thoughts.

"Off with you then!" He said in an angry tone.

I really didn´t cared answering that disrespectful man back and left the post still thoughtful, and started blending with the multitude, standing in between the market while people passed by my sides.

What the hell is going on here? I don´t assist my first day on the academy, got attacked by bandits, lose my horse, and now I´m on a totally unknown place that I've never heard before.

This is crap.

So then I did what I always did whenever I was stressed; I looked skyward to see the sky, always blue and calm, thing that always relaxes me.

As I rose my head to see the sky I noticed a large building with a lighthouse on top of it that rotated around itself. This building on its upper part has a very large and fully working clock on it crafted on wood with a big wooden ring around it that spun at each second. I raised my head to see the sun and know the hour, then checked the clock and said: 2:27 PM, the exact time that the sun indicated.

I recognized that this building was the one where I came from, and all those cogs that rotated because of the water stream were powering up the clock. Those levels of cleverness were nowhere to be found on Hyrule. I gotta admit that people from these lands use more their heads than most people from Hyrule.

Then I thought about Epona.

(Where could her be?, she obviously had to survive the fall in the catacombs, so there was no other way to go, she had to end up around these parts, even with those bandits still on top of her. I better ask if someone has seen her.)

I stood there in between the town's crowd thinking about that with my hand on my chin, when someone accidentally bumped me. I turned around and saw a redheaded young woman with pretty sapphire-blue eyes; she was exactly the same height as me. She was dressing a purple skirt, chocolate brown boots, a white shirt with dark blue patterns on its sleeves, and a yellow scarf tied at her neck with a medallion of the face of a dragon or something like that. Very ranch-like. We made eye contact for three seconds before she looked down and said:

"Sorry! It was my fault" she apologized.

"Don´t worry, it was my fault, I wasn´t paying attention" And certainly, I was just standing there, not aware of the people passing.

She was about to turn and leave when I said:

"Huh, sorry…" She turned.

"Could I ask you something?" I was just about to call her ma'am but I realized that it wouldn't be appropriated because she was around my age.

"What is it?" she said trying to not looking at my eyes, telling me that that´s how she treats complete strangers.

That's not a good thing. Whenever I meet a complete stranger, I always look them directly to its eyes, because your eyes can easily reveal who you really are and your intentions.

That´s how that dwarf of Garet tricked me, I never could look at him at the eyes because of its hat that covered that covered them. The evil looking eyes of Lunpa made me immediately fight him. And I couldn't see the salesman´s eyes because of its dark sunglasses, If I had known that he might be as rude, I would never have approached his post.

When I looked at her eyes I could see that she was somewhat shy, which could explain why she doesn´t want to look at me straight to the eyes again.

"Have you seen a horse passing through here?"

"Umm…sorry, I don´t think so, horses are prohibited inside of the city"

"Oh…thanks" I said about to turn around to ask somebody else, when she said:

"Are you lost? You seem a bit disoriented" she said looking straight to my face, but not the eyes.

"Yeah, actually, I'm not from around these parts"

"Really? Are you a foreigner? Like from outside of Termina?" she gave me a puzzled look.

(Termina? Is that the name of these lands?)

"Yes, you could say that" I said trying to stay focused.

"Foreigners are rarely seen around here, you know, you need someone to help you?" She eased her look.

"Well, I guess so"

"Follow me then, I know someone who can help you"

I nodded and walked around at her left side, following her as she told.

I don´t know her yet, but I didn´t saw any single bit of evil on her eyes, so I´m sure that I could trust her.

"Thanks for your concern, miss"

"Don´t mention it, but hey, no need for formalities with me, my name is Cremia"

"Well then, thanks Miss Cremia!" I joked.

She tried to hold it back, but she giggled.

"And yours is…?"

"Call me Alex" she smiled a little as I said my name.

I've always believed that any people in the world look better when smiling, that's why I joked, I wanted to see her smile. Don´t get me wrong, it´s not that I like her or something, it´s just that I´m always trying to make happy the people around me.

We walked, passing the clock tower and crossed a gate, we got to another part of town, I looked everywhere as I walked beside her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I glanced a chest-shaped building at my right side and was going to read what the sign on a building that had an octorock sculptured on it (a shooting gallery, maybe?) said, but then Cremia spoke:

"This is the Stock Pot Inn, here there will always be a bed available for you to rest, as long as you have enough rupees…" she said as she pointed with her hand the first building we passed, the one that I completely ignored at first.

Since that moment, I seriously considered that there might pass some days until I could find a way back home, thing that worried me a little, but didn´t showed.

"But this is not the place that I wanted to show you…" she said as she started walking again.

I continued examining my surrounding surroundings as I continued walking by her side. This place was like Castle Town, so similar yet not the same. Part of me was excited to see to see all these new places.

I glanced in direction to a gate that was guarded by who seemed to be a town´s guard holding a spear, he seemed to be very bored though, just standing there, waiting for someone to do something stupid.

Weird, this guard was dressed almost the same as a regular Castle Town guard, or it´s just a coincidence?

We went up some low stairs in between two buildings, passed a lighted torch and got in front of a building with red patterns painted on it, it had what I would say, was the emblem of the city on top of its entrance on a sign that said "Mayor´s Residence"

So this is a democratic city? Just like Horon Village in Holodrum. I´ve read about that kind of government, and consider it a lot more efficient than monarchy because the people can actually choice who´ll govern them instead of just having a permanent "Royal Family" that always had the last word.

"This is the place, here they surely can help you, Alex" Cremia said a she turned to see me.

"Thanks, I hope that I didn´t interrupted you on any errands"

"No, don't worry, I was going to east part of town anyway" she said with her left hand resting on her hip.

"I really appreciate it, Cremia" I smiled.

When I said that, I noticed that she blushed a little and looked away, but I just smiled at her thankfully, and acted like I didn´t noticed.

"Y-you are welcome, ask for Madame Aroma, right? She´ll help you"

"Thanks a lot, hope to see you again Cremia!" I said with my right hand on the door knob, and the other waving goodbye.

"Bye Alex!" she said as she turned and walked away.

I turned the knob and opened the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Mayor's Residence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I got inside of the building, my boots contacted with a soft carpet that extended towards a counter with a receptionist on the other side.

I walked toward the counter and glanced at the pot plants around me. This place is quite nice and elegant. I stood in front of the counter and saw the receptionist, who was a green-haired woman with dark brown eyes, wearing a tight white sleeved blouse.

"Welcome. Do you have some business? "She said as she placed her two hands, one above another over the counter, like stretching them.

"Yeah, I´m looking for Madame Aroma"

"The room on the left is the Mayor's room…" She wasn´t paying attention to what I said just a moment ago.

"And the room on your right is the drawing room and it´s also Madame Aroma's office"

"Uh… thanks…I think"

As she told me, I walked to the room at my right. I opened the door and entered a room with a fireplace on its right side, and saw an overweighed middle-year old woman with red hair braided so strangely that almost made me chuckle, but I resisted the urge to. She was sitting on a low single sofa, reading a book, and surely drinking some hot coffee from the coffee pot on the table right next to her.

When I closed the door, she glanced at me and said:

"Oh dear, are you on a field trip?" she said as she looked at my sword.

"This is my office; The Mayor's office is next door, if you need to speak to me about ideas for the next the next carnival, make an appointment, please" she said holding the book on her right hand.

"Madame Aroma? My name is Alex, Cremia told me that you could help me, I'm new in town" I was trying to be as polite as possible.

"Cremia? Ah, yes… are you a foreigner dear?"

"Yes ma'am, from Hyrule"

"Hyrule? I have never heard of it before…"

As I expected, if I didn´t ever heard of Termina, then people from Termina will not know of Hyrule either, thing that discouraged me a little.

"Well then, dear, how can I help you?" She said as she put her book on the table.

"Thanks ma'am, listen…"

I sat on a sofa that was right next to her and told the miss all the misfortunes that happened to me earlier; how I didn´t assisted the knight's academy, about the bandits and how they stole Epona, and finally how did I end up in Clock Town and how Cremia guided me through town. She was quite amazed by hearing such ordeals, but at least I was sure that she believed me.

"Oh, dear… now you are trying to get home do you? She worriedly said.

"Yeah, but first I need to find my horse, that it´s my only priority right now"

"Oh don´t worry about it dear, I will tell the guards the notice and they will tell you if they have seen your horse and spread the notice. But since I have never heard of Hyrule, i really don´t know how to help you to get you back home, dear"

I wasn´t expecting more help than that. She then gave me a map of Clock Town and a general map of Termina, and said that it was all she could do for me now.

She was a busy woman, so I had to leave her office because she would had a reunion soon, so I exited the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I leaved the Mayor's Residence I noted that it was getting late, the sun was setting already.

(What do I do now?)

(Well, just wait for information about Epona then… then what? But what could I do while waiting? I have to find a way back home in that time; I have to settle down somewhere in town. Even if I find Epona, I still have to find a way back home, thing that can take me a few days, even weeks to figure out)

I put my hands on my hands and grabbed my hair in frustration.

(Why does this happen to me!)

"Ouch!" I screamed in pain.

(Uhh… I forgot that there was where I hit my head…)

I rubbed the injured area and it hurt just like when I got hit.

Now I have to find a place to rest, so I went to the place that Cremia told me, the Stock Pot Inn.

It wasn´t far, I just walked for less of a minute and was in front of the entrance of the inn already.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I crossed the entrance door and immediately stepped a little light green mat in contrast to the entire wooden floor forward. I looked to my right and saw a sofa and over it were three giant masks hanging on the wall one was green, other gray and the last one was blue, all of them with the same disturbing grin on it. I looked to my right and saw a counter, but no one was behind it. I walked towards it and, yeah, no one was in the counter. I was going to ring the bell on the counter when I heard a door open, and a red haired woman with blue eyes, appeared. She looked like Cremia, but with a more intense red hair. She was dressing a white shirt with a sleeveless dark brown vest and a navy blue skirt. I could tell that she was a little older than me. I supposed that she was the receptionist.

"Welcome to the Stock Pot Inn…" She said while doing a greeting lowering her head, grabbing her both hands in front of her waist.

"Um…Are you…staying the night?" Something was distracting her.

"Uh, yes"

"Can you tell me… your name please?" she said with a pen on her hand.

"The name´s Alex" she wrote my name on a book full of names of other people. I think that there is where they wrote the guest's names.

"…Surname please…"

"Lon"

As she wrote my complete name on the guest´s book, she then closed it and said:

"…The stay is 30 rupees per night, sir" she said while smiling, obviously waiting for me to get my money.

I got out my rupee bag, and grabbed a red and two blue rupees and gave them to her. I was lucky that the currency on Termina was rupees, just like in Hyrule.

"Here…" I said while giving her the money.

"Thanks!" She put the gems on a drawer in the counter.

She then got out a set of keys from another drawer and gave them to me.

"Your suit is the Knife Chamber…have the keys please" she said as I took the keys.

It was just a pair of keys, I guessed that one was for the room and another was for the front door.

"Thanks, I really needed a place to rest"

And actually, I was very tired because of everything that happened earlier, I just want to get some rest right now.

"You are welcome. Umm, are you traveling?"

"Not actually, but you could say so, I might stay here some days"

"I´m glad, you have a weary face… you know"

"Haha!, I could use some rest right now!" I laughed. I didn´t denied it.

She giggled as she saw me laugh and said:

"My name is Anju, I hope you enjoy your stay!" she said while smiling.

"Thanks Anju!"

"You are welcome, the rooms are upstairs"

She continued smiling for a short time until I heard a baby's crying coming from another room and she quickly left to said place, leaving me confused.

(Wow, she's so young, I never thought of her as a mom since I saw her)

After she leaved to attend her baby's crying, I went upstairs, where she told me where the rooms were. I walked up the wooden stairs and got to the second floor, and examined the door's names. The first door from the stairs said "employees only" so I went in front of the second door, this one said "Knife Chamber". I put the key in the keyhole and rotated it, then I opened the door.

Not to my surprise, the room had nothing to do with its name, it was just a regular room with wooden floor and two beds on its right side, a table in the middle of it with two chairs, a window with view to the Clock Tower, and a fireplace on its left side, it was quite big for me, but I didn´t complain.

As I got in, I immediately took my sword off from my back and placed it on a bed, took off my boots, and laid for a while In the bed at the corner of the room. I glanced towards the door at the left, walked to it and saw that was the bathroom. I didn´t thought about it twice; I took off all my clothes and took a shower with hot water as soon as I stepped on the bath.

The bath was relaxing, but when I got out of the bathroom, I glanced down sighing.

Back in home, whenever I took a bath, my little brother was always knocking the door, impatient for its turn to take his bath. It was always like that every day.A part of me was expecting for my brother to knock the door, bothering me to no end as usual.

But I'm not in home anymore, so that didn´t happened.

I dried myself up with a towel that was on the bathroom, and put my dark blue undershirt and my brown pants on, leaving my sleeved shirt folded in the drawer next to my bed along with my endless pouch. I hung up my sword to the wall with its strap.

I was already night, so I lit the fireplace and jumped to my bed, ready to sleep.

I put my hands behind my head while lying on the bed, just staring at the ceiling. I was trying hard to sleep, but every once that I closed my eyes, they opened seven seconds later. I couldn't sleep, so many things have happened today, and now I got to get over it.

Yesterday, my life was normal as ever, but today I´m in a totally unknown land, alone.

At that time, I realized that I never appreciated my family's company, always there for me but, now I'm far away from them, so now I have to take care for me alone. But I couldn't help but feel lonely.

Then it came to my mind what most people do when they are troubled: Pray for help from the Goddesses.

(Hump…the goddesses… what they have done for me? Nothing.)

Everyone in Hyrule worshipped the sacred goddesses: Nayru, Din and Farore, whom "made" the world by creating the land, the sky and the living creatures. And after done said labor, they returned to the heavens, leaving behind three sacred golden triangles containing its power, wisdom and courage. And the hylians worshipped them waiting in exchange better harvest, good health and wealth.

But where the goddesses were when my family spent difficult times? Nowhere.

No sacred hand descended from the heavens to helped us, we got out of those times because of our own struggles and hard work.

I'm just being realistic; I've never witnessed any miracle. Blame me all you want, but I don´t believe in the existence of the goddesses, I just believe in one's willpower. But I decided not to talk my parents about it; they are very conservative in that matter.

I knew that clap my hands together and pray won´t help me in the least bit.

Tomorrow I will have to find a way to earn money, I can´t stay here all day doing nothing, my money will run out if I don´t. Not that any miracle will happen anyway, right?

* * *

**Well, that's it dudes! i'll try to update weekly at least, my mind is flowing with ideas of this right now, I'm even doing some artwork of Alex.**

**So review to tell me how it was the chapter, constructive criticism is widely welcome. see you next week guys :) review and let me know what you think**


	3. Ch3: Hopeless Hope & Burning Birthmark

**Well, hi there! here is a new chapter that just came out from the oven. in my opinion it came out pretty good this time.**

**Be aware: english is not my primary language so some grammatical mistakes can be expected, but don't blame me a lot for that! i won't retain you any longer, just go and read it goddammit! XD**

* * *

The big malevolent creature was chasing me. This creature was eyeless; it measured like 80 feet, it had purple spikes everywhere on its body, big pointy teeth that could crush a goron easily in moments. With every step it did, it made little earthquakes. I was running, escaping from the stomps of this giant creature in the black background.

Then the environment changed. I Was in a green open plain, and saw in the distance a house, and ran into it with the giant creature still following me.

I got in front of this house and glanced back. The monster was there, now opening its mouth, charging some kind of power on it.

I looked at him with rage on my eyes. The monster launched the energy on its mouth, targeting me. I wanted to run, I knew I was gonna die if I let that blast hit me, but I couldn´t move out where I was standing, I just kept looking at him angrily.

When the energy blast was right in front of me, I raised my both arms in front of me, and practically grabbed the enormous energy ball with my two hands.

"AHH-AAAAHHH-AAAARRG!" I shouted

I was trying to hold the enormous energy ball back. The pressure was so intense; the contact with this energy made my hands burn. I couldn't hold this for much time, now it was pushing me back, but I had my feet firmly on earth, practically burying them to the ground.

Then I understood that I was actually trying to protect the house behind me. Why? I don't know…

I couldn´t hold it anymore: the energy ball broke my arms and I fell backwards: the energy ball destroyed me while I was shouting in pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up abruptly, sweating and trying to catch my breath. It was a nightmare. The room was still dark, only illuminated by the firelight.

I rarely have nightmares, I don´t even remember the last time I had one. I removed the sweat from my forehead and realized that the birthmark on the back of my left hand was burning me again. I stared at it confused:

(What's this? Why is burning me now? Does this have to do something with that nightmare?)

I decided to not pay attention to it. Yeah, it hurt, but surely it´ll pass in some minutes anyway.

I got up from my bed and glanced outside the window. There it was clock tower, but I couldn´t see the clock from there, so I looked up, and the sun hasn´t even come up yet. It was very early in the morning, so I decided to get back to sleep. I returned to my bed, covered myself with the blanket, and slowly, closed my eyes.

(I hope… I won't have that nightmare… again…)

* * *

I opened my eyes slowly, waiting for them to get used to the light. I sat on the bed and kneaded my eyes. I stood up, raised my hands up from my head and stretched my whole body while yawning. I smiled and scratched my head.

(Ahhh… that was some good rest…)

I unfolded my shirt from the drawer next to my bed and put it on. I went to the bathroom and wet my eyes with water of the sink, with that I got completely awake. I got out of the bathroom and put my sword on my back. Today I'll gather information about Epona, so I'm gonna explore the town today, so that's why I have my sword with me now; I don't know this city yet, so I have to be aware of it, anything could happen.

I grabbed my rupee bag, my endless pouch and the Clock Town map that Madame Aroma gave me, and got outside of my room.

I locked my room with key, and got downstairs, and I was ready to leave when someone called me behind the lobby counter.

"Alex?"

"Huh?"

I glanced back with my hand already on the front door's knob, and saw Anju behind the counter, holding a baby covered with a red blanket between arms.

"Good morning…wouldn´t you stay for breakfast?" she said while looking at her baby.

"Uhh…yeah! Why not?" I couldn't say no to her.

"Okay, then… let me show you the dining room… wait…" she said as she walked to the corridor behind the counter.

(Man, I still can't believe that Anju's a mom, she's too young…)

She came from the corridor behind the stairs, and said:

"Come…I'll show you the dining room, there you can meet the other guests" she said as she tickled her baby on his belly and the baby laughed.

I really don't have any hurry to go and gather information, so I followed her to the dining room. I walked by her side and examined the baby closer.

The baby was male and had big red eyes, and was not older than two months. The baby looked at me with playful eyes smiling; he raised his little hands up, like trying to reach my face.

Anju saw that her baby wanted to play with me, so we stopped walking.

I lowered my face to the baby, and he grabbed my nose, and him, me, and Anju chuckled.

"He likes you!"

"Hahaha! Yeah!…what's his name?"

(Giggle)"Daniel" she said as we started walking again.

We got to the dining room and was full of weird people sitting in front of a big wooden table, supposedly the guests, all of them glaring at me and whispering things to the ear. I counted six people sitting on the table.

"The breakfast is almost ready… please take a sit…" Anju said paying more attention to her baby.

Then Anju leaved to another room, maybe the kitchen. I sat on the only chair remaining, next to a bald man with a big grin on its face, bearded until his sideburns, as I sat, he said:

"Hey, boy…are you new In town?" he said while staring at me grinning.

"Uhh…yeah, why?" I responded awkwardly

"Woah! We never see any foreigners around here!" another man across the table said.

This man had a red sleeved shirt, and a weird hairdo, and sitting beside him was another exactly man with the same wry face but with a blue shirt being the only difference between them. They were twins.

"Oh, brother, why you always have to point the obvious, hoo, hoo, hoo!" he laughed in an weird but surely normal tone for him.

"Hoo hoo hoo!, I know brother!" these guys are just plain weird.

"Ignore them, what's your name then, kid?" The bald, bearded man said to me.

"Alex"

"You are the one who came at afternoon yesterday?, are you traveling, don't you young lad?"

"Umm… not exactly traveling, I'm looking for someone, but I might spend some days in here"

After that, a middle aged woman came to the room. She had the same factions that Anju, surely, her mom, but she was a little over weighted. She came with two bowls of soup with spoons on them, one on each hand, followed by Anju who also had two bowls of soup, (maybe her baby was asleep) and proceeded to give them to the guests.

They gave me the first bowl of soup, it was a simple noodle soup, but its smell made my stomach growl loudly.

"Here you go!" Anju's mom said as she gave me my bowl.

"Thanks ma'am!"

When I had the bowl in front of me at the table, I quickly grabbed the spoon and started eating the soup swiftly, as I always do.

When Anju's mom leaved to get the other two bowls of soup for the remaining guests, I got big glares from the guests because of me eating as fast as I always do. The bald bearded man just stared at me wide eyed, holding his spoon in front of his bowl. When Anju was leaving, I already had finished my soup, so I said:

"Excuse me, Anju! Can you serve me another bowl please?" I said while smiling.

Anju, already leaving the room, stared at me with her mouth open for three seconds until she said:

"Uhh… sure…" she then took my bowl and leaved to the kitchen.

Everyone in the dining table stared at me after witnessing my way of eat and how I was already asking for another bowl.

"I wish we eat like that! We are so skinny Hoo hoo hoo!" The wry faced man with the blue shirt said.

"Yes we surely are brother hoo hoo hoo!" his twin said.

"Young lad, calm down, enjoy the food-don't eat too fast!" the bald man said.

"Ha! Don't worry, always eat like that!"

Then Anju's mom came and gave me another bowl of soup, which I devoured in 10 seconds, gaining a surprised glare from her.

"For the giants!, what a glutton boy! I wish my daughter eat like that!" she said.

I was fully capable of eating another bowl, but I wanted to search for Epona right in that moment, so I stood up from my chair and waved goodbye to the guests.

"Thanks for the food ma'am!" I said to her smiling.

I leaved from the kitchen, leaving her with her hands on her hips with and with a confused face confused face.

"I don't understand why he's so skinny…"

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got out of the Inn and got out the map of Clock Town that Madame Aroma gave me yesterday; I opened it and extended it with my hands. I got a little astonished because of the big proportions of the city! this place is even bigger than Castle Town, and that's saying a little. I searched and located the Stock Pot Inn in the map and pointed my finger in the exact place of its front door, where I was standing.

"Ok, so this is the west part of town…"

I glanced to the south part of the town from the map and saw that the south and west part of town were connected by a gate that was… on my right side. With the map still on my right hand, I walked towards this gate, where I could see a part of the Clock Tower already.

(…!)

But… just to get sure, I raised my left hand over my shoulder, and there it was, I was touching the hilt of my sword. I was glad that I didn´t forgot it this time.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stood at the entrance of the Clock Tower, where I got my map out again. I pointed my finger at the entrance of the Clock Tower, and saw that the exit of town was not too far away.

I glanced forward to see the same mass of people that was there yesterday, in the same merchant posts, but in the distance saw this exit that the map told.

(Come on Alex; think… if yesterday there was a guard on the eastern gate, then there WILL be a guard on the southern gate too… maybe I could ask him if he had seen a horse…)

I put the map on my endless pouch and walked towards the town's exit.

I want to specifically ask the guard of this gate because if something happened around here yesterday, he will know. I could surely ask random people around this market, but I might not have luck, or they could just ignore me, so asking the guard was the fastest and easiest solution.

I passed through the mass of people in between the market, and got in front of the south gate's guard. He had his head down and I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just plain distracted by his thoughts. In that moment, like yesterday, I realized that the guards' armor is exactly the same as Castle Town' guards, and the only difference between them was that the Hylian crest was missing from his armor, with the emblem of Clock Town replacing it. The big similarities can be just a mere coincidence, so I decided not think too much about it, instead I talked to the guard.

"Excuse me, sir"

"Uh!…" (He glanced at me some seconds) "…the southern swamp at Woodfall lies this way. Be careful" He looked drowsy and tired.

"Have you seen a horse pass through here yesterday, sir?" I just went straight to the point.

He then looked at me with an amused face.

"Ah! Yes I've seen a horse yesterday, it was running like crazy!"

By those words, a ray of hope finally came to my mind. My eyes grew wide in excitement.

"Have you? Tell me more!"

"Okay, man, this is the thing; yesterday a horse came running like crazy from the entrance of the Clock Tower! It made a little disturbance among the people at the posts, luckily, it didn't crashed against anybody; it was crazy man! Things like that doesn't happen every day y' know"

"Can you tell me how this horse looked?"

"Mmm…the horse had brown hair and a white mane…"

(He has seen Epona!)

"…and it had a man and a kid on top of it; one was regular, normal guy, and the other one was a boy dressed in green tunics, who was trying hard to not fall down from the horse, it was running madly! I have to say, they were really having a hard time taming that horse!"

(When I see those guys, I swear I'm gonna kick their asses hardcore.)

"Where did they go?" I asked impatiently.

"Hmm… after making that huge scene on the posts, it ran directly to the exit gate of town, right here, and it fled out to the field. I wasn´t foolish enough to try to stop an upset horse, so I didn't got on his way, horses aren´t allowed inside of town anyway, you know…"

I have finally tracked down Epona! In that moment that I went into an automatic mode that made me run straight out of town, hoping to see Epona somewhere on the field, even though I knew the probabilities of that to happen would be very low, I still had hope for finding her, it was the only clue I had. I leaved the town's walls leaving the guard still talking.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I got out of the city, I took some time to take a look to the field in front of me. It was a big and open green plain with some exaggeratedly big trees. I walked through the wooden-decorating exit, and walked past some big wood structures raising from the ground that were painted white, green and red at its ends, decorating the exit too.

I threw a big glance around the field, by my left, in the distance saw a circular shaped building with a big telescope on its top, followed by a series of trees that blocked my watch from seeing further away from them, and a path that securely lead to the swamp that the guard mentioned earlier. At my right side I saw far away terrain covered with sand (a desert maybe?) more closely saw more field with big extensions of tall grass on it, and on the distance saw a passage decorated with two tall wooden pillars that were holding a big sign that I couldn't read because I was too far away.

I looked everywhere in sight, but there was no trace of Epona or the bandits. It was such a stupid idea to hope that Epona could still be here roaming aimlessly, but there were no luck.

Then, a light bulb lit on top of my head and got an idea that may work…

I got out my old blue ocarina that my grandpa gave me from my endless pouch. This ocarina apparently was very important for my grandpa, when he gave it to me; he told me that I had to treasure it with my life. He said that "I hope that the moment when you need this never arrives" and taught me to play it. I have to say that it was kinda hard to move the fingers in order to make certain sound, but with some practice and my finger's coordination I mastered it. This instrument made such a sweet and soothing noise that always is good to hear.

I started to play the song that my grandma taught me to easily tame Epona.

A high note then a lower note followed by a note even lower, and repeated in that order three times and finally repeated the two final notes.

My fingers danced in the ocarina's holes as I played the tune. This song kinda relaxed me; it made me remember my life back in my house. This song represents everything in my youth, working hard with my parents at the ranch; the final notes represented the satisfaction of a long day of work: **This was Epona's Song** as my grandma called it.

"But why he's playing it?" I heard you say. Well, Epona can hear this song in a million miles away, and she would always come to the source of this song, no matter how far is it, she will come. It's like some sort of calling for her.

I played her song for like five times in a row, hoping she would appear somewhere… but there was no luck, she didn't appeared.

(This is all my fault… I let those bandits steal her… and now they have gone off with her somewhere, somewhere she can't listen to my call…)

I just needed a discharge from all this crap I was dealing with. In my frustration, I hit hard the wooden column that was near me with all my rage, making my ocarina fell from my hands. I punched the column with my left hand so hard, it made my knuckles bleed a little. I frowned and looked to the ground, trying to clear my mind. I looked my left hand still angry to see my wounded knuckles,. They were all red. But that was put aside when my birthmark started to burn me again.

"What again?…"

I stared at my triangle shaped birthmark on the back of my left hand. Now it was practically red for the burn, what's causing it? I don't know… I glanced to my feet and saw my ocarina on the ground. I eased my emotions by looking at it. I picked it up from the grass and put it on my endless pouch. Then I continued staring at my birthmark.

(sigh) (Get angry won't help me in the least bit…)

I absorbed completely that thought and calmed myself after taking a deep breath. Then I glanced to the background.

(Maybe I just need to wait for information…)

I looked to the open field on my sight, and wanted to explore a little further away to the place and I felt curious about what the big sign between the big structures said, because I couldn't read it from where I was standing, I walked towards it.

I started walking trough tall grass that covered me up to my knees, and I was approaching to the sign just the enough to read its big letters on the distance.

(Sink rode?) No, it can't say that…

(Silk road?) No, that wasn't, I kept approaching.

I kept getting nearer with my gaze locked to the big sign, but much for my astonishment, a Deku Baba rose from the grass. The sudden surprise made me grab my sword and unsheathe it.

The Deku Baba then rapidly tried to bite me with its large fangs, but when it backed to throw its attack, I quickly jumped leftward and sliced its blue head, thing that wasn't very good idea, because its head was so solid and hard. I barely made it a little scratch with that, so I had to change my strategy. It then faced me with its mouth open, tossing acid from it to the ground. It moved its head right and left, like trying to confuse me. I took the chance and sliced inside its mouth, which was soft in comparison to its head, and practically cut its head in two, making the lower part fall to the ground, and the other part, still attached to its body, disappeared in blue flames with the rest of its roots, like any other monster do when they die. A Deku Nut jumped from the rests of the plant and I caught with my right hand before it fell to the ground, and looked at it.

"Mmm, could use it later…" and I put the Deku Nut on my endless pouch.

Then I checked my sword and saw that its blade was all messy with saliva of the Baba, just a little collateral damages I thought, and sheathed back to its case on my back.

After that little commotion, I read the sign for good this time. I narrowed my eyes to see further.

"Milk Road?"

I finally knew what the sign said, but what's Milk Road anyway? Maybe I could go there and ask for a lost horse…

I walked towards that road that the sign said.

* * *

I walked for two minutes still on the tall grass until in my way I glanced a weird shaped stone pinned into the ground in the middle of the field with tall grass. This stone totally out of the context really got my attention, so I walked towards it to examine it.

When I was getting nearer this stone, I smelled a scent, a scent that I've never smelled before. I was a combination of metallic, cold and burned plastic, scent that grew with every step I made.

Now I was in front of this weird-shaped stone, at its sides it had strange letters carved on it in a language I've never seen before. I took a deep breath and noticed that the scent came exactly below of the stone, where it was cleaved. I was curious enough to want to touch it, so I extended my left hand to it and… I couldn't touch it. There was like an invisible barrier that repelled me to touch it, like when you want to join the same sides of a magnet, it repeals each other.

So I tried to touch it with my right hand stead, and as soon as my skin came into contact with the stone, I heard a ominous noise coming out from somewhere.

"…go…away…"

Immediately when I heard it, I turned back, and saw no one, then looked to both sides, and no one was around.

(Maybe I'm hearing things…)

I proceeded to touch the stone again. This time, when I touched it, blue sparkles came from the stone, so I took two steps away from it. I stared at this stone while the sparkles came from it, then I heard the voice again, now angry.

"Go away!" I realized that the voice was coming from my head as it made echo on it.

Then I suddenly felt an electric sparkle on my head that caused me an extremely painful headache. I put my hands on my forehead trying to reduce the pain.

"GO AWAY!"

My head was gonna explode if that voice kept shouting like that, so I listened to what it said and ran with my hands still on my forehead.

My head hurt like hell, I ran towards Clock Town to get a cure from it fast. My brain pounded painfully on my head five times each second, but as soon as I got away from the stone, the pain was going away too. I reached the south entrance of town and continued running until I got to town.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I reached the southern exit of town and stood there with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. I removed the sweat from my forehead and realized that the headache was totally gone.

"Sorry, you are Mr. Alex?"

I turned and saw that the guard was asking me.

"Yeah, why?" I responded breathlessly.

"Madame Aroma told us, the guards, about your problem, don't push yourself about your horse, leave that to us; we'll getcha any information we can collect"

"Are you serious? Thanks!" I said totally recovered.

"But be aware: it could take several days until any information arrives; you better get a job if you want to get incomes while waiting, time is money you know! Maybe you want to become a guard maybe! That would be awesome man!"

"Uh… no, but thanks…"

"Oh, well, at least I tried…"

I waved goodbye to him and leaved to the Inn, I had enough for a day.

But what he said was sure though; I need to get a job or else my remaining rupees will run out pretty soon, I already have to pay 30 rupees daily for the stay at the Inn. At least I don't have to worry about searching for Epona, but I'll have to stay in town if any information arrives, meanwhile I'll find a way to get back home.

But I have one thing clear: I won't get near that damned stone again.

* * *

**How was it! this one extended more than i wanted, but that's a consequence of my mind being flooded with ideas.**

**see you next week.**


	4. Ch4: Getting Social & Chocolate!

**U missed me? Here's a new chapter from the delicious Word's oven! i'm sorry i'm a bit late with it, but i make it up by making it larger than usual, as it covers the history of two chapters in one (2x1!) **

**Be aware, it can have some misspellings because of two reasons:  
1- English is not my primary language.**

**2- Word auto-corrects a lot. (primary reason)**

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Here ya' go! Thirty…" I said as I handed six blue rupees to Anju.

"Thanks! I hope you are enjoying your stay!" Anju said as she put the rupees on a hidden drawer behind the counter.

I sat on the couch right next to the entrance door. I still had my rupee bag on my hand. I noticed that it was getting smaller and lighter each day that passes. I glanced to the inside of the bag and counted exactly that sixty-five rupees left. I put my left hand on my cheek and started to think:

(Oh man, my money is running out too fast… where I could work? If I don´t get a work in two days, then…)

I didn't even want to think about it. Yesterday I progressed nothing by going into the field, just got a hell of a headache because of that weird stone in the middle of the grassy fields, and I doubt that any information of Epona may come today, but on top of that, I don't have any idea about how to get back home. Even though I've met all the other guests at the Inn yesterday, they didn't ever heard of Hyrule before, and knew nothing about a horse.

And the cherry on top of the cake was that I had that damn nightmare again last night.

I couldn't help but sigh in frustration.

"… sigh…"

"Umm… sorry… something troubles you?" Anju said behind the counter.

Anju couldn't help but notice my preoccupation.

"Well, actually…"

I really have no reason to hide my problems to her.

"…I got no trace about the person I'm looking for, and to make it worse, my money is running out very fast…"

"Really?…My apologies, that…may be my fault…" she said, looking at the floor.

"What? No! Why are you saying that?" I replied in a friendly tone.

"No… really…the Knife's Chamber, the room where you are staying, is the most expensive room In the Inn, you know…" she said looking at the ground, trying to hide the guilty on her face.

"…?"

"I'm sorry! The…Knife's Chamber is the only one available, but if you want, I can change you to a regular room, which would cost only ten rupees, but you have to share it with other guests though…" she said still looking to the floor.

"Hahaha! Don't worry! I'll take care of the money somehow, but please! (I whispered to her) don't put me in the same room with those guys, please!"

She giggled at my statement. So I'm not the only one that thinks that all the other guests are weird? She covered her mouth with her hand to contain the laugher.

(giggle) "Erm… now seriously… you may need to get…a job, Alex."

"…Yeah, I've thought about that…"

The silliness of my last comment had totally disappeared from the conversation.

"Maybe you could suggest me some?" I said with my arms crossed, a normal posture for me.

"Mmm… you are a swordsman… right?" She said looking at my sword.

I glanced upon my left shoulder and gave a quick glance to my sword. "Ye could say so… why?"

"You could be…a guard, you know, like those at the gates" she said with her hand on her chin.

"Hehe, someone told me that before, but I don't think that being a guard could be the job for me…"

Probably, **you **are asking why my negation of being a guard. Then, it's because I don't want to stay all the day in a gate doing nothing. I've seen it with my eyes; the southern entrance's guard looked like he disliked his job. But my most powerful reason to not being a guard is that I don't want to wear those ridiculously tight and short trousers. I'm dead serious; those things will never fit me. (especially on the crotch…) Just thinking about it made my pants feel tighter.

"Then… the Milk Bar, maybe?" She suggested. That got my attention.

"Milk Bar? What's that?" I asked.

"The Milk Bar it's a bar that serves only milk, and opens only at night; however, only members are allowed in. But…I know the owner, Mr. Barten. He´s a serious guy, but nice and kind too. If you explain him your situation, then he may hire you, but who knows"

I put my right hand on my hip. "Really? That sounds interesting… where's it?" I asked.

She opened her mouth, like going to answer, when a baby's crying was heard from another room, followed by a squeaky shout: "Anju!" Her mom shouted from another room, immediately gaining her attention. She was going to leave and answer the call when she turned to me and said:

"The Milk Bar is right next to the inn" she hurriedly.

"Uh, Ok…"

She hurried to assist her mother with her baby, but she stopped just before she could disappear from my sight and told me:

"Good luck Alex!" she said as she rushed out, leaving the counter alone.

"Thanks!" I replied, not sure if she heard it.

A Milk Bar… I couldn't think of something better at the time, I mean, it's not that money just come from the grass or something, so I decided to take her suggestion and check out the bar. I got out of the Inn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as I stepped on the paved floor outside of the Inn, I glanced towards my left, where was a building painted with weird patterns painted on it, much like every building I saw before.

I walked towards its entrance door. The door had a sign that said:

"¨_Latte_¨ _The Members-Only Milk Bar". Open from 10 Pm_." with elegant script.

I wasn´t exactly here for the service, so I ignored the sign and put my right hand on the door's knob.

I was going to open it when I glanced a poster hanging on the right side of the building. I stood in front of the poster and examined it. It was a chalkboard with some things written on it, probably to promote the establishment.

_Milk bar Latte:_

_We offer our customers limited-run milk. Thus, we are a members-only establishment._

_We serve:_

_Romani Milk_

_Gorman Milk_

_Chateau Romani_

_Those who do not have proof of membership will be refused service._

_-The Owner_

They are serious with that members-only rule, but hey; it´s not like milk can get you drunk, right? I opened the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I closed the door and got a little astonished by the looks of this place. It was a big place, contrary to what seemed outside. The first thing I looked was two spinning fans hanging on the ceiling. I was in a very tall place; I looked below the hand rails and saw a man mopping the floor. He hasn´t noticed me yet.

(That must be the owner…)

I walked down the large stairs and got to the main floor. In front of me was a big scenario with its lights out. This place is quite elegant.

I walked towards the man who was mopping the fancy paved floor. He turned to face me. I examined him as he did the same with me. He was bald, but had a very thick beard, and had a very fat nose. He was dressed like a regular bartender; he dressed a white shirt sleeved to the elbows, complete with a black bun on his neck, and a black vest that only highlighted his large belly. He had a cow-patterned pants that, to be honest, seemed ridiculous. He had a completely black eyes and thick eyebrows, which raised one of them while inspecting me from head to foot. He rose that eyebrow even more when he glanced my sword on my left shoulder, but I was too busy trying to not to chuckle because of those ridiculous pants, until he said:

"The bar opens at night, sir. And it's members-only. We refuse people who don't have proof of membership." He said in a robust, serious tone.

I was going to say something when he started again:

"Well, now I'm getting things ready, so as long as you don't get in the way of my cleaning, you can stay." He said in a relaxed tone.

"Thanks…"

Then I proceeded to sit in one of the seats in front of the bar. The bar owner proceeded to mop the floor again silently. I rested my elbows on the bar table, and looked at the decorations that had the other side of it. I looked to my right and stared at three giant containers, probably containing those three different milks that the sign outside said.

"So…" He started. "What brings such a young man like you into a closed bar?" He said, still mopping the floor.

I turned to face him. "I… didn´t came here exactly for the service, sir."

"What do ya' need then?" he stopped mopping and faced me and rose an eyebrow.

I had to choose my words carefully, I didn´t wanted to give a bad impression.

"Well, first of all, my name is Alex" I extended my hand in front of him.

"It's Mr. Barten for you" we clasped our hands together friendly.

Then I told him all my tales about how I got to Clock Town. He proceeded to sit in the seat next to me. His reaction was that he nodded and nodded while listening to my history. I told him about Hyrule, Epona, the thieves, and even that I settled in the Stock Pot Inn. I felt that he half-believed and half-doubted.

"Mmm… that sounds like you are carrying a great weight on your back…" we both stared to the floor.

"Yeah…now I have to find a way back home…"

"But you still haven´t answered my question- why did you came in here?" He asked, trying to not being rude.

I'm the kind of person who usually goes straight to the point, but this time was harder to get to this certain point. I took a deep breath and got all out:

"Ok-mah money is running out fast-so I need to get a job-and someone told me that I could work here, so I came here to ask—for a job" I said sheepishly.

He took five seconds to process my words on his head, but then he burst into laughter.

"Hahahahahaha!(deep breath) Hahahahaa!"He grabbed his belly and put a hand in front of me, like trying to excuse himself. "E-excuse-me! Hahahahah!"

I just stared at him confused and wide eyed. What's so funny?

Between laughs, he put a hand on my shoulder and said:

"Haha!-you don´t have to be shy! If you need it, of course you can work here!" he said with a warm smile.

My eyes grew wide and smiled. "Really!"

"Yeah! I actually could use a helping hand in here!"

I happily smiled and nodded "Great! Now what do I have to do?"

He put the mop in front of my face and said: "First, mop the stage!" I stared at it two seconds; I nodded and grabbed it, and stood up from the chair and started walking towards the stage with the mop in my hand.

"But!" he started.

"You have to know that you'll be working here until late hours of night, all right?"

"All right!" I replied with a decided face.

I got on top of the stage and mopped the floor. Mr. Barten got into a room behind the bar.

I couldn't help but smiling, this was the first good thing that happened to me in Clock Town! It can be just something small over all the stuff that I went through before, but I appreciate widely, no matter how small is in comparison. Now I have to keep that pace of good things, next is find information about Hyrule… But how?

I mopped the entire floor, washed the dishes, cleaned the bar, polished the containers and a lot of other stuff, until we got prepared to open the bar. I and Mr. Barten found time to spare, so he offered me a glass of romani milk, I couldn't say no. We chatted a bit before open the bar.

"Say, Al… I'm still amazed how such a young man has to confront all your situation…" then he took a sip from his glass of milk.

"Yeah, but what else I have to do? I know that I have to deal with this by myself. At first, when I glanced to the town for the very first time, I couldn't believe it! I mean, after thinking about it, I didn't thought a logical explanation, so I thought that all this was a dream, but…" ( I touched my head where I got hit when I fell from Epona) "This pain is real, and you, Mr. Barten, is real too… I just can't hide of this thinking that it's not real… I have to face this like a man!" I got it all out, and felt eased in my interior.

A couple of minutes passed until he replied: "And that's exactly what are you doing now" He gave me a warm smile. "To be honest, I didn't believed not even the half that you said, but now I don't really feel any bad intentions on you…"

I smiled thankfully and drank my glass of milk in one big gulp and, in difference to the Inn's guests; he didn´t got surprised, and drank the little milk that remained on his own glass.

"You know… you really look like someone I've seen before…" he said after putting his empty glass on the bar.

"Huh? Who?" I asked.

He shook his head "Nah, nevermind… it can't be…"

I just gave him a confused look while he stood from his chair.

"We have to open now…" he said as he walked upstairs to get the main door open.

That I look like someone? Some guests told me the same thing yesterday. They said that I looked like some child that was in town about a year ago and knew practically everyone at the Inn… and now Mr. Barten too? What does this mean?

I shook my head and got back to the real world. Get lost in my thoughts has no use.

I got behind the bar and costumers got inside very fast. In less than a minute five people sat on the other side of the bar. At first, I thought that only bad people with bad mean come here, but realized that the costumers were just normal people! I even saw the jugglers from the Inn came to the bar.

I really got well along with the costumers, they just asked for some type of milk, I gave them, and they gave me then the rupees worth of the beverages. Even Guru-Guru, from the Inn too, came and I served two Romani's and one glass of Gorman and we chatted a little bit.

But this particular guy came then, he had a really weary face. He sat on a free seat; he put his arms on the bar and sighed heavily. I walked towards him behind the bar. I can say that he's a little older than me; he had a very unusual purple-blue hair and red eyes. What a weird combination.

"What could I serve you?" I asked.

"?… who are you?" he raised an eyebrow.

That's not a nice way of talking to somebody you don't know…

"Hehe, my name is Alex, I'm new I town, Mr. Barten just hired me today" I said friendly.

"Ok then, "Alex", could you serve me a glass of chateau?

"A Chateau Romani at the order!"

I then walked to the big container that was in the middle of three, the one with the rose colored substance. I turned the valve that was below it and the milk came out from a pipe below the valve and put the milk in an empty glass and filled it to the edge. I turned the valve to its original place and returned to the blue-haired man.

"Here, it's- two hundred rupees…" I still felt weird asking for such a high amount of money just because a single glass of milk.

The Chateau Romani was the most expensive milk from the three we serve. When Mr. Barten first told me its price earlier, I got astonished, how could a simple glass of it could be so expensive? I haven't tasted it yet, and obviously can't afford that amount right now. What makes it so especial?

Another fistful of people asked for it earlier and paid for it without a hesitation. Is this milk so tasty to pay all your earnings of the week? Or this town's people are just disgustingly rich? Who knows…

"Here…" He got out four purple rupees out from his pocket and handed them to me.

"Thanks!"

Then I put the rupees inside the cash register and, mostly, ignored the red-eyed man, he looked like he had his own troubles in mind, so I better not disturb his thoughts.

* * *

It was very late at night and my body was asking for a rest already, but kept working at the same pace I started with. But it didn't take too long to Mr. Barten to notice it, so he spoke to me:

"Al, you can go now, you look like you could use some rest" he said with a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to say that…" I didn't deny it; I already had rings under my eyes.

He chuckled and got a red rupee and two blue rupees (equivalent to thirty rupees) out from his pocket and handed them to me.

"Take, this is your pay…" he said holding the rupees in front of me.

I smiled and nodded. "Thank you very much!" I took them respectfully and put them in my rupee bag. I was going to leave right away, but Mr. Barten stopped me:

"Hey, Al, wait!" He said holding a transparent jar on his hands.

I walked towards him and realized it was the jar that contained the night's tips, full of mostly, green rupees.

(Is he going to give me a part of it? Sweet!)

He then opened it and gave me all its content, I calculated exactly seventeen green rupees. I was surprised, with my hands full of the gems I said:

"What? All of it? You gotta be kidding me!"

"You deserve more than that for your great work today. Now go and get some well-deserved rest!" he said with a warm smile.

"Sure!" I thankfully said.

"I want you here tomorrow at four, kay'?"

"Kay'!" and i leave the bar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My feet were begging to rest. I opened the door and closed it with key. I practically jumped to the bed just for a moment to feel the soft bed, but enjoyed the moment more than I had to; I was dozing already, so I abruptly got up from it.

I couldn't sleep like that. I rapidly take off my boots, removed my sword and hanged it in the wall next to the bed; I took off my shirt and leave my dark blue undershirt on. I left my remaining stuff in the drawer at the side of my bed, I left there my endless pouch, but when I got my rupee bag in my hand, I glanced at it for some seconds, shook it and heard the sound of several gems against each other. I smiled.

(It's… heavier…)

In that moment I felt satisfied because of it. Yeah, my feet may hurt, and I may be tired as hell, but all that hard work expresses itself right in this bag.

I sighed and put it in the drawer, went to bed and got asleep I less than ten seconds.

Two days after that, I got used to the routine of my work, now I don't have any monetary issues. I arranged a deal with Anju yesterday; if I helped her in the cleaning of the Inn, in especially the other guest's rooms, then she would only charge me twenty rupees instead of thirty for my stay. Deal that she accepted gladly.

Ughh… now that I remember, today I did the cleaning on the principal guest's room, and… man, there were little blue spiders crawling on the floor of the room.

I simply can't stand spiders… the way they move with those little legs and how they run insanely fast, but when you look at them they just stood in place, like looking at you… I got out my sword and killed them one for one, (even though there were only two…) thing that was very hard to do…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Al! Quit loafing around and clean the bar!" Mr. Barten got me out of my trance of spiders.

"…!" I reacted. I was so lost in my mind that I forgot that I was working.

"Get lost in your thoughts won't get ya' any money! Now keep polishing the bar!" He ordered.

"Uh…yeah! I'm doin' it" I answered and continued polishing the bar table with the wet rag on my hand.

(Hehe… now I'm starting to talk like him…)

I got along very well with Mr. Barten too. He's actually a very kind guy, though sometimes strict, he has a very big sense of humor, and usually fells into the ground laughing because of someone telling him a joke, it happened my first day, yesterday, and surely today he's going to do the same at some point. But he's not only my boss, he's also my friend. I smiled.

(It's good to be open with someone sometimes…) and that "someone" is a friend.

Then, I heard that the door upstairs got open, with its regular squeak. I stopped polishing the bar and glanced towards the door, and Mr. Barten did the same.

(Someone? This early in the day?)

It could be anyone, someone dangerous even. I instinctively raised my left hand on my shoulder and… realized that my sword wasn't there. An image of my sword hanging on the wall that I usually left it on my room came to mind. I facepalmed.

(Sh*t…)

But my worries disappeared when I glanced a red-haired woman entering the Bar. She wore a purple dress and a white shirt with a yellow scarf tied around her neck… wait…

(I've seen her before…)

She then glanced at me while walking downstairs, and stared at me. She had some very pretty sapphire-blue eyes… hang on a second…

(Is she…)

"Cremia! Nice to meet you! How's been your week?" Mr. Barten started.

She then stopped staring at me and smiled to Mr. Barten and got downstairs, in front of Mr. Barten.

"As always, Mr. Barten, full o' work…"

Cremia?… Ah Yeah! Now I remember! She was the one who helped me out when I first got in the city! She works for Mr. Barten then?

…But actually, that's none of my business, so I continued polishing the bar. But being those two the only people talking in such an open building, I couldn't help but hear what they were saying.

"So, you have this week's delivery?" Mr. Barten asked.

"Uhh… yeah, I do" I wasn't looking, but I could swear that she was still looking at me.

"Al! Come here please!"

I stopped polishing the bar and walked towards them. I didn't wanted to incommode her, so I didn't looked her straight to the face, instead watched Mr. Barten while walking towards them.

"Uh… what is it?"

"Please, be a gentleman and help the young lady bring her delivery to here, okay? He said in a tune of not-waiting-a-no for answer.

"Yes'sir!" then he leave to a room behind the bar.

"Umm… please…follow me…" she said sheepishly. I nodded and silently started walking upstairs along with her.

(Doesn't she… recognize me?) Maybe yes, maybe not…

We got in front of the door, and as my father always told me, I always have to open the door to a lady. I opened the door and offered her to go out first, as any gentleman would do.

"Thanks! What…a gentleman!" She smiled to me.

She then proceeded to go outside. I must admit: her smile made me blush (thing that I rarely ever do), I hope she didn't noticed…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I closed the door and kept following her as she told. We were walking towards the east gate. I was minding why go outside to the dangerous field until she spoke:

"Maybe it's just me but, I think that I've seen you before somewhere you know… how Mr. Barten called you? Al?…" She turned to face me and our eyes met for some seconds. I said nothing, just waited for her to continue her phrase.

"…ex? Alex?" she was surprised.

"Yep, the same" I just smiled.

I was a little relieved that she actually remembered me.

"H-how have you been? I-I didn't recognized you at first—without your sword!" She made a sheepish grin. We continued walking.

"I've been good, and hehe, as you can see, I forgot my sword at the Inn" I said looking at my left shoulder and couldn't help but facepalm again.

(One plus the countless times back in my home that I forgot my sword…)

While I lamented my stupidity, we passed by the east gate's guard, who was taking a comfortable nap. I'm not lying; he even had a pillow on his head while leaned against the wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We walked outside of town where a carriage was right in front of the town's entrance. This carriage had a lonely horse with reins attached to it. It had brown fur and a chocolate-color mane.

(Mmmm… chocolate…) My stomach growled.

"Can you help me carry the milk jars?" she asked, interrupting my food fantasies.

"Uh, yeah of course!" I snapped back to reality.

She noted my lack of attention, but just giggled and climbed up the carriage.

Then I turned my attention to the horse. I calmly patted his neck, and he snorted. It's really crap that horses are not allowed inside of town. I sighed.

(Epona… where could you be…)

Then I turned and saw Cremia holding a big jug with her both hands. I understood. I got in front of the carriage and she passed it to me. It was heavier than I expected. This jug had the image of a smiling cow standing in grass and text that said: "Romani's". So Cremia sells Romani Milk? I put the jug in the ground.

"Here comes another one!" She advised, holding a second jug. She passed it to me and I put it on the ground too.

"Okay, there are still more, but we'll come back for them later…" She then was going to get down from the carriage.

But before she could do, I offered her a hand to help her get down. She took a pair of seconds to accept my helping hand. She gently grabbed my hand, and I helped her get down the carriage. However, when she landed her both feet on the ground, she almost slipped, but I prevented it by grabbing her shoulder, not letting her fall. In that position, our faces met in a dangerously close distance. She immediately blushed heavily and I broke my grip from her, and we both stared at the ground sheepishly.

"W-we b-better get j-jugs to the bar" She then proceeded to hold a jug with her both hands.

"Y-yeah! We b-better do" Then I grabbed the other jug with my both hands, holding it in front of my chest. And we walked towards the bar to deliver them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The atmosphere between us two got really awkward after that last scene. I didn't dare to speak.

I don't understand—I've fought a flock of wild wolfos by myself back in my home ranch but cannot break the ice with a girl? Jeez Nayru! What's wrong with me! But **you **can't blame me; this ice is very hard to break...

"Soooo… Mr. Barten hired you, huh?" it ended up that she was the one who break the ice between the two.

"Eh, yeah, h-he hired me like two days ago…"

"And why the Milk Bar? There are surely another places for you to work on, like, you could be a gu…"

"Guard? No thanks… I mean, just look at him!" I turned my head towards the east gate's guard, who was now lying on the floor sleeping with a blanket on, and I swear that saw some ZZZ's coming out from him.

That image made her not giggle, but chuckle.

"Haha! Now I get it!" she smiled.

That really broke the ice.

"And what has happened to you since we last met?" She asked.

(sigh)"Well, it's a long story…"

I told her my tales while delivering the milk containers to the bar. I resumed her my days since I last met her, excluding the part of Epona. Telling her about it would be just a waste of breath. What could be the chances that she knows something about a lost horse anyways? Probably, zero.

But I did told her that I was searching for a way back home, and that I've been asking the bar's costumers if they knew a land called Hyrule, thing which… wasn't giving me any results either.

The time while we talked passed quickly, and we were leaving the last container (out of five) from the carriage to the bar. I

"But today, I forgot my sword at the Inn…Ha!" I growled, drawing out enough force from my arms to put the last container of milk in the bar table.

I wearily sighed."Uff… that's the last one"

"Thanks Alex! Between two we did it really fast! I owe you a lot" she smiled thankfully at me.

"Between two? Does…" I looked both sides and whispered to her. "…Mr. Barten doesn't help you get the containers to here?"

"Well… no, he has never offered to help me… you've been actually the only one to help me in my work for a quite while… you know…" she said with her both hands together on her back and looking to the ground while clutching the fabric of her skirt

I felt flattered by her words. I raised my right arm and put my hand on my head. I smiled. "Is the least thing I could do to return the favor!" I smiled.

"…What favor?" she looked confused at me.

"…? Cremia, if you had not helped me when I first got in town, then I had not known my way around. If it weren't for you, then I had not known a place to stay. If it weren't for you, I had not known Anju, who told me about the Milk Bar, and finally work here thanks to you. Sooo" I crossed my hands in front of my chest and looked to the floor. "I'm actually the one who owes you a lot…"

She stared at me thoughtfully, and being gazed by her in that way was making me blush slightly and my heart was pounding fast.

(Did I actually said that? i think that i overdid it a little with the words... now she's going to think that I like her or something because of that! What I was thinking!)

"You finished helping Cremia, Al?" Mr. Barten said while approaching to us, making Cremia turn her attention to him.

"Uh—yeah, I-I did"

"Ok, Cremia, how many you bring me this week?"

"Today was five jugs of Romani Milk… next week is Chateau…"

Mr. Barten then glanced at the jars of milk that we left at the bar table, and got his rupee bag out from his pocket.

"Five jars of Romani, would be… seven-hundred huh?" he said as he got out three golden rupees and two purple rupees out from his bag.

"Yeah, exactly…" She said as she accepted the rupees and put them in her own rupee bag.

I didn't got surprised to hear that amount. Milk can be very expensive in a big quantity, and more if runs out as fast as does in this bar. I know that fact very well, as I helped my parents did their money accounts, I knew well the high price that milk can have.

"Thanks Mr. Barten!" Cremia said.

"Now, if you two don't mind, I have to continue my break…" He said.

He then got a glass of Chateau Romani with ice out of the nowhere, and put some sunglasses on and leaved.

She then turned to me and said:

"And… what are you going to do now, Alex?" She asked.

"Right now I'm trying to find a way back home, but I can't find a reliable source of information…"

She put her hand on her chin and took some time to formulate an answer.

"Mmmm… I may know a place…" She stated.

My curiosity rose to the skies. "Really? where?"

"In west part of town, there's a library I usually go… you should drop by there sometime"

A… library? That never crossed my mind before.

"That seems like a good idea… " I scratched my head thoughtfully.

"Well, I have to go now. I don't want to get late to the ranch, my sister will get mad at me otherwise"

"See ya' next… week" I said.

"Bye Alex, bye Mr. Barten!" she waved goodbye, got upstairs and got out of the bar.

She leaved me thoughtfully. A library seems like a nice place to gather information; I better go there in my free time…

My stomach growled.

Mr. Barten walked towards me.

He took off his sunglasses and said: "Hehe, Ye like her don't ya'" now he was in front of me with a shamelessly wide grin.

He was surely waiting for me to end like a tomato by hearing his statement, thing that my father always did whenever I met a pretty girl in Castle Town. But for once, I turned the table saying something he surely wasn't waiting for me to say.

"What if I do, then?" I replied with the same smile he was giving me some seconds ago. I walked upstairs.

"Where are you goin'?" He said as watched me walk towards the entrance's door.

"I'm going to buy some chocolate" I said with my hand on the knob.

* * *

**That's it for this week guys, for any suggestions or ideas, leave your review. I have to tell you something very important: i may take me longer now to make new chapters, because i have final's exams and most recently a girlfriend (yay! :D) BUT i may have them faster if i receive some reviews. The reader's feedback just pumps me up to do it faster.  
**

**See ya all (hopefully) next week guys take care.**

**-Matt**


	5. Ch5: Tales of a Forgotten Kingdom

**Hi there guys! here is another delicious chapter for you! **

**This time i'm introducing some optional background music, it works like Copy&Paste the music in another tab in youtube and the ambient is set! **

**If you read to the end, you'll know a little surprise from me at the author note's at the very bottom.**

* * *

Several days have passed. Any information about Epona's whereabouts hasn´t arrived yet.

However, my search for information about Hyrule continues, meanwhile, I keep working for Mr. Barten at the bar.

As Cremia told me, there was a library on west part of town, on which, I rented books for a couple of days. At first, I didn't found any information about my homeland in there either, but I'm stubborn enough to keep searching, shelf after shelf, day after day.

Although I didn´t want to admit it, I was starting to give up hope…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I came from downstairs from a breakfast with the other guests. As I usually do, I ended my meal before everyone else on the Inn. I opened my room's door and closed it behind me. I looked to the calendar that hanged to count how many days have passed since I first got in Clock Town.

I grabbed a red pen and marked an X respectively on May 21, next to the other marked days that passed.

Now I see exactly twenty-two X's. Twenty-two days in town without a clue of Epona or Hyrule.

I sighed heavily and turned to see my sword hanging on the wall. I walked towards it and grabbed it with my both hands.

I put my sword firmly on my back and got out of my room, all set for another day.

I went downstairs and while I passed through the lobby. Anju greeted me good morning, as she always does. We didn't exactly greet in the breakfast because of how fast I eat, so she greets me now.

"Good day Alex! How was your work yesterday?" She said giving me a warm smile that immediately eased my look.

"Morning Anju! I actually ended early on the Milk Bar yesterday" I scratched my head and stretched my back with my hands up in the air. "More rest for me!"

"Great!…But don't push yourself too hard, ok?"

"Don't worry about me…" I got out my rupee bad and handed her four blue rupees worth my stay.

"Thanks! Take care…" She replied.

I just smiled to her and got out of the Inn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I walked through people in the town's streets. Here people always come to do shopping, as this part of town is considered the true market part of town.

The posts that are placed in south part of town are just a little flea-market compared to the bustle of this part of town, in which, most stores are roofed or indoors.

Before going to the library, I stopped by the town's bank. There was Ron, the bank "owner". And I mean owner, because he's the only one I've seen managing that place, in the same position every day that I pass, seated with his feet bent. Now that I think about it, I've never seen him standing with his feet on earth.

"Alex! You need somethin'?" He greeted me.

"Hey Ron! I want to deposit rupees today"

"Excuse me, but let me take a look at you…"

I roll up my right arm's sleeve up to the elbow and showed him the stamp from the bank on my skin. He took a closer look at it and raised an eyebrow (At least I think he did. His hair covered completely his eyes)

"Ah, yes… Alex. If I remember, you're the young man who deposited two-hundred eighty…" He put a hand on his chin "…eighty-one rupees"

He knows me; I pass here almost every day to deposit some money, and even said my name earlier, but still check the stamp? Or he has a problem, or is just that he's a little picky about how he runs the bank.

"Well, are you gonna make a deposit? All right! So…" He then clapped his hands against his legs. "How much? How much?"

I got out my rupee bag and got out a purple rupee and a red rupee. "Seventy"

"Really? Are you really depositing seventy rupees?" he amusedly asked.

"Yeah" I handed the gems to him.

"Seriously? That's a lot! A lot! A lot!" He almost screamed. He always gets that amused whenever someone deposits money on his bank.

"All right, young man, now I've got a total of three-hundred fifty-one rupees from you! Come back and deposit some after you save up a bunch!"

I waved him goodbye and leave. The bank is very useful, it saves my money for me without having to hide it under my couch and sleep in a comfortable bed for once, and my rupee bag cannot hold more than three-hundred rupees anyway.

I got in front of the library's door. The library was right next to the Lottery Shop, that the middle aged women frequent. I entered inside the library.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Library ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The library is actually bigger than it seems outside. I walked through the red carpet that leads to the librarian, who was sitting behind a big counter with countless books at its sides.

I know well the librarian, her name was Mia, and she has a beautiful light blue hair and equally light blue eyes that paired well with her hair. She was wearing her usual librarian outfit; a white sleeved shirt with a black waistcoat. She didn't notice me at first because she was reading a book, typical of her.

I stood in front of the counter, and she still hasn't noticed me. She was too absorbed in her reading.

"Hey, Mia"

"Uh!" She looked at me and got a little astonished. "Alex! Hi! How have you been? What do you need?" She smiled at me.

I focused on her smiled more than I intended to "I'm, returning a book…" I got out my endless

pouch, and got out a red book out of it. "Here…" I handed the book to her.

"Mmm… "She took a closer look to it ""Landmarks of Termina", huh?" She then glanced at me and I nodded.

She then got out a list, and pointed her finger surely to the book's name. "You returned it at time! Great!" She smiled. "But you just rented it yesterday… what happened? You didn't like it?"

"No, it's just…" I took some time to appreciate her beautiful face.

(Din! She's pretty…)

"Alex?" She noted my lack of attention.

"…!" I blushed a little and put my hand on my head scratching my hair smiling. "Uh, nothing! I just wanted to see the pictures haha!" I sheepishly laughed.

(Giggle) "Oh Alex, you'll never change…" She then rested her elbow on the counter, put her hand on her cheek and proceeded to continue with her reading

I walked away from the counted, heading to the bookshelves paired against another.

I don't like to look like a dummy with anyone, but I don't know how to react in front of a pretty women. Yes, I like her, but I'm not the kind of guy who just come and says:"I like you" in front of someone. No sir, those are powerful words, and back at my homeland, my friend Landon learned that by the hard way. Once, he told that to a girl who he liked just like that, and he got a slap from answer.

I giggled a little by remembering that. I shook my head.

But I have more important matters to deal with; women don't have to be on my head right now.

I walked through the wooden floor and passed by the reading tables, where they were just a fistful of people reading its own book.

I went to a random bookshelf and started searching for a book with an attractive title for my research, as I do every day since I first came to the library.

("The Endless Northern Mountains"… that won't do…)

("The Great Mighty Poo"?… what the hell is that?)

("Reproduction of the Goron tribe"?… uh, no thanks…)

("The Legend Of Melda: The Toilet Princess") (giggle) (That sounds hilarious; I better check this one later on…)

("The legendary Rod of Seasons"… that won't do either)

I kept searching for a book that could help for my search. I checked like three full bookshelf's and found no useful information. I was starting to desperate.

I always believed that there was no heavenly deity, waiting to help me just by clapping my hands together and pray. No, I believe in one's struggles to continue forward, and that's how the world works I guess.

But now, I'm putting all of me in my search to find a way back home, but what happens if those struggles are not getting me anywhere? What happens then? That means that… I'm stuck on this land forever?… I looked to the ground.

(That… I'm not able to see my family again forever?…)

Let's be realistic. Unless I grow wings and get back from where I first came on those catacombs, I don't see any other way to go back to my home…

"You've met with a terrible fate haven't you?…" Someone nearly whispered.

I glanced to my left, towards the reading tables, and saw that everyone was in their respective seats. But then I looked to my right… "…!" and glanced a man with a wide grin on his mouth right in front of me.

I reacted grabbing the hilt of my sword, but didn't unsheathed it. "Who are ya'!" I whispered. I can't make a big noise inside of the library; it would make a huge scene.

"I know about your ordeals. And that you are trying to find a way back to Hyrule, do not you?" the grinning man asked me back.

I looked at him amazed. He said the key words to launch my curiosity. But who's this man? I've never seen him before around town…

I let my grip on my sword and said: "How… did you know that? Who are you?"

"I may know of a way to get you back to your home… Alex…"

I shivered and stared at him speechless.

"Oh, but we cannot have a normal conversation on this place huh? I'll be waiting for you inside of the Clock Tower…right now" After with that, he faded away in the air, right in front of me, and leave me dumbfounded.

(What the f*ck just happened?)

I put my hand on my forehead and took some seconds to process what just happened.

I came to the conclusion that this man has information that I better know, no, he even knew my name! This guy knows about Hyrule, about me, and tells me that he knows a way to get back home? This is too good to be true… and just like that? Well, I got in this place just like that too…

I've decided, I´ll go with a blind faith this time. I better get to the Clock Tower. I want answers and I want them right now.

I walked in a fast pace, well, fast enough in a library, and intended to leave unnoticed, but Mia saw me walk past the counter.

"Alex! Leaving already?" She said.

I didn't turn to face her and kept walking "Yes" I responded coldly.

She noted my seriousness and asked worriedly "B-but you´re not going to r-rent a book today?"

I grabbed the entrance door's knob and replied: "No, sorry"

She stood up from her chair. "But Alex! I wanted to ask-" I closed the door behind me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't care if I was rude or not. Right now, women can't fit in my head. I can't miss this chance to know how to get back.

I sprinted towards the south part of town, evading the people passing by.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stopped in front of the big wooden doors that lead inside of the Clock Tower to catch my breath. I recovered in seconds and extended my hands in front of me and pushed the large doors open.

I got inside the Clock Tower, and the place looked exactly the same as last time I saw it. But no one was around my sight. Looked downstairs, and saw the spinning cogs from last time, and the river that powered them. But no one was around downstairs either.

I was just about to throw a punch to the air in anger, but when I was going to do it, I felt a cold stare that made me shiver.

I turned and saw the same man with the wry smile that I met in the library. He had a huge backpack on his back filled with Farore knows what, but had a bunch of masks hanging out of it. His backpack was very heavy, so heavy that he had to lean his back frontwards. He wears some sort of purple coat.

"Ah, you came…" he said and continued giving me a wry smile while he clapped his hands together.

I frowned. "Okay, pal, this is the last time I'm going to tell you" I took three steps towards him. "Who are you!"

_**(Background: Happy Mask Salesman Theme)**_

(Ominous giggle) "I own the Happy Mask Shop. I travel far and wide in search for masks… you can call me "The Happy Mask Salesman""

"Huh…" I crossed my arms around my chest. "Nice name… now tell me how do you know my mine's!"

"Ho, ho ho! That is a little hard to explain…"

"Well then, you said that you know how to get me back home, now spill the beans!"

He then crossed his left arm in front of his chest, and grabbed his chin with his right hand. "…I know of a way to return you to your former land…"

"How so!" I asked impatiently.

"You have to hear my story first…please take a sit…" he pointed his hand towards a wall.

"Huh? What seat?" I turned to the place he pointed, and saw a green sofa in front of another purple sofa that weren't there before.

I looked at him confused and glanced back to them and proceeded to take a sit in said green sofa and so he did in the purple one. Before he sat, he took off his huge backpack with just one hand, and put it at the side of his sofa.

"Listen to me…"

_**(Scene: Fades to black)**_

"Many stories tell of a forgotten kingdom… whose remains lie in the most eastern part of what is called today, Termina"

_**(Scene: Map zooms into the canyon in the east)**_

"Ikana was the name of that kingdom… it was a peaceful and noble land, home to the best swordsmen's you'll never get to know…"

_**(Background: Conker's Bad Fur Day: Ze Professor)**_

"But its prosperous era didn't last long…"

_**(Scene: Map zooms into Ikana's country border against other country on its east)**_

"Its good fortune attracted the greed and jealously from its eastern neighbor, Garem…"

"Garem was an emergent, big and powerful country commanded by dark mages…"

_**(Scene: A pair of red-blood eyes staring directly at you)**_

"But its maximum ruler was a **terribly powerful mage**, whose red eyes could stare at your soul…"

_**(Scene: War)**_

"A big war soon began. Garem wanted to annex all of Ikana's territory, and Ikana just fought back, defending itself with its fierce army of knights…"

"The fight was very equal at first, and most of the time, no one really had any advantage against each other…"

"But Ikana was losing a lot of men in fight, thus, got outnumbered fast…"

"In their last struggle, they prayed for help from the Giants, who, responded giving them a golden blade from the heavens; the elemental **Four Sword**…"

_**(Background: Twilight Princess: Sacred groove)**_

_**(Scene: Zoom into the Four Sword)**_

"The **Four Sword**… its blade sparkles with magical power, it has a hilt of gold with an incrusted jewel on it that varies in color…"

"It posses the power of the four elements: **wind****, ****earth****, ****fire**, and **water**, which grant it the power to repel and banish evil, lift curses, seal away evil, and cannot be touched by those of impure heart. But most important for you… it has the power to travel between worlds…"

_**(Background: Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness: Admin Battle)**_

_**(Scene: War)**_

"In the last battle, the evil ruler presented himself to claim the lands as theirs, but the ruler of Ikana, Igus Du Ikana, presented himself on battle too, wielding the sacred golden blade on his hand…"

"In the climax of the epic battle, the dark mage fell dead by the Four Sword being impaled in his chest… and the battle ended shortly afterwards, and so did the entire war"

"With the conflict ended, and no more threats from outside, Garem declared partial pace. But without its ruler, the country slowly dissipated and separated in smaller countries, leading it to the collapse of its power. The descendants of that country hold a grudge against the Terminians until today…"

_**(Background: Chrono Trigger: Manoria Cathedral)**_

_**(Scene: Zoom into the Four Sword pinned into a pedestal)**_

"After the climactic battle, the people from the world didn´t understand at all extent the massive power of the blade. Because of that, Igus Du Ikana decided to hide away the blade, hoping to prevent its misuse"

"Nowadays, the Four Sword remains hidden away, along with other treasures of the Royal Family of Ikana…"

_**(Scene: Fading back to the inside of the Clock Tower)**_

"Let me see if I understand. You want me to retrieve that sword? Is that it?" I finally spoke.

"Certainly. I need you to get that sword for me. In exchange…" He extended his hands in front of him. "I'll get you back to your homeland using its power…"

I looked at him distrustfully.

"Hand me your map please…" He put his hand in front of me waiting for me to give the map to him.

I got out the general map of Termina that Madame Aroma gave me and handed it to him. He took ten seconds and returned it to me. I extended it with my both hands and saw that he marked a circle surrounding a certain location. The marked part was called "Ikana Graveyard" by the map.

"Ikana Graveyard?"

"Ho, ho, ho! What? Is it not a simple task? Why, to someone like you, it should by no means be a difficult task"

I put the map back to my pouch and stood up from the sofa "Ok! That's fine with me!" I amusedly said.

And he was correct, that's by no means a difficult task for me. I don't care get a little dirty because of the terrain outside of town.

He noted my enthusiasm. "Yes… you'll be fine. I see you are still young and have tremendous courage… I'm sure you'll find it right away…" he said with his hand on his chin.

"But you'll better get prepared… the outsides of town can be… dangerous…"

"I'm totally aware of that"

"Well then, I'm counting on you… come to see me when you have the sword in you possession…"

"You can be sure that I'll get that blade right away!" I fearlessly said.

Then I got out of the Clock Tower with a big grin on my face.

When the big wooden doors closed shut behind me, I finally threw that punch in the air. But I threw it with happiness instead of frustration.

(Yeah! Finally!)

Finally I know a way to get back home! I just have to get that sword or whatever to this guy and he'll take me back home!

My exited grin faded and snapped back to the real world.

(But this won't be that easy… what he said is true though… I better get prepared to get outside of town…)

I walked a little further away and glanced upwards to the big clock on top of the clock tower. And checked if I had enough time to buy things before go to work today.

I put a hand on my forehead to enhance my view "Mmm… 1:32 Pm…Yeah… I have enough time…"

I went to the western part of town to do my shopping.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Now… what do I need?)

I thought of just go there and buy what I needed fast, but my memory is worth crap, so I got out a notebook and wrote what would I need.

(Now… let's see…)

_-A traveler tunic_

_-A shield_

_-A bottled fairy/ red potion_

_-Fingerless gloves_

(Yeah, I think that it's all I need…)

I went to the general store of the eastern part of town; there I could buy the fairy and the shield

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trading Post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I liked the decoration of this store. I had a river that surely ended in the Laundry Pool. I passed through the river by a little wooden bridge. I even saw a pair of fishes swimming trough the water.

The owner hasn't noticed me though; he was very busy doing his favorite activity: scratch his back.

He does that all the time. I've seen doing it every time I get to the store, and yeah, it's kinda weird…

"Uh, sorry…" I started.

He then to face me, and put his hands on the counter, but constantly kept scratching his back.

"Heeey! Welcome. What are you looking for?"

"How much for a bottled fairy?" I said with my right hand on my hip.

"Fairy? Fifty rupees. This'll save you if your energy runs out! Keep it in an empty bottle"

"And how about a red potion?"

"Red Potion: Thirty rupees. This does the trick when you need energy too, but you need an empty bottle to keep it in…"

I put a hand on my chin. I just have one empty bottle… I have to decide what I'll buy between the two.

I didn't take me much time to decide that the fairy is the better deal. It's more expensive, but it's "automatic" as my dad told me once. What does that mean anyway?

"A bottled fairy would be" I got out my only empty bottle I had from my endless pouch and placed it in the counter.

He then took the bottled fairy displayed behind the counter; he uncorked it and quickly covered it with his hands, preventing the fairy to flee. With his remaining hand, he took my bottle and put the fairy inside of it and closed the bottle with its lid.

"Fifty rupees please…"

I got out my rupee bag and handed him two red rupees and two blue rupees.

"Thanks!" "Thanks!" we both said at the same time.

I placed the bottled fairy on my bag and pointed that I bought the bottle fairy on my list.

_-A traveler tunic_

_-A shield_

_-__A Bottled fairy/ red potion(Checked!)_

_-Fingerless gloves_

I glanced at the shield displayed behind the counter. "How much for the shield?"

"Hero's shield: eighty rupees my friend. This is a great deal. I kid you not! Really!"

I just had fifty rupees left on my pouch. I don't even know why I asked for it.

"Err… no thanks. By the way, you know where could I buy a traveler tunic?" I asked.

"Mmm… there's this one two stores to the left"

"Thanks!" I waved goodbye and so he did, and continued doing his favorite hobby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I won't get to buy anything that I need with the little money I had, so I withdraw two-hundred rupees and went to the clothing store that the guy on the trading post told me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Binco's ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the kind of store that you always pass in front of it, read its sign, but never enter to it. Or it's just me.

At all the sides of the store, numerous styles of clothing were displayed behind windows. The entire store was covered in a dim yellow light that proceeded from a room behind the counter. I walked through the carpeted floor and got in front of the counter where a middle-aged man with exaggerated long brown hair was waiting for me.

"Welcome, young man. What can I do for you?"

"Hi. Do you have like, some sort of traveling tunic?" I asked.

"They are at yer' right…" he pointed.

And so, I turned to see right part of the store, and saw various yet different colored tunics on the top right corner behind the glass. The tunics shared the same style. I couldn't decide between the green and the red one.

(What was my favorite color… ah! Yes! Red!)

The green one looked cool, but if I have the option, I prefer the red one.

"How much for the red one?" I said with my hand on my chin.

"The red one ye' say… ah, fifty. Comes with a white sleeved undershirt"

(Hey! 2x1! Why not!…)

I nodded "I'll buy it"

"Hang on a second…" then leave to the room behind the counter and came in less than twenty seconds.

In those twenty seconds, I glanced at a pair of dark brown fingerless gloves hanging in the wall behind the counter that totally caught my attention. The shop owner came with a white box, opened it and got out my new clothes. Meanwhile, I got out a purple rupee out of my bag and handed it to him, and in exchange, he gave me the garments and I put them inside my endless pouch.

"Thank you!" he said.

"No, thanks to you!" I smiled. "How much for those fingerless gloves?" I asked.

He turned to see them and started. "Ah, these?" He grabbed them "For you… Thirty"

I said nothing. I didn't complain. I got out a red rupee and two blue rupees out my bag and handed them to him and put the gloves inside my endless pouch.

I got out my list and marked my recent buys.

_-__A traveler tunic__(Checked!)_

_-A shield_

_-__A Bottled fairy/ red potion(Checked!)_

_-__Fingerless gloves__(Checked!)_

(Now only remains that shield…)

"Umm… sorry to ask but, are you a swordsman?" He said looking at my sword.

"Uh, yeah, you could say so. May I ask why you are asking?"

"Uh, nothing, is just that you carry a sword on your back… that you bought a tunic and some gloves… but don't buy a chain mail?" He pointed his finger towards the left side of the store.

I turned to that direction and saw a short sleeved chain mail that got my attention.

(Mmm… that may come in handy…)

"Ye like it? It's only seventyyyy! A good swordsman may always have a nice protection against other blades you now…"

I easily fell by his cheap marketing technique. I glanced back to him. "I take it!" he already had the box containing it on his hands. I handed him the equally priced quantity of gems and he gave the chain mail to me.

It was heavier than I expected, this thing is made of solid iron. I put in my endless pouch.

"Hey… By the way… don't you know somewhere where I can get a shield repaired?" I asked.

"Mmm… yeah. There's this guy, Gondo. He works at his Scrap Shop just left to the Curiosity Shop"

"Thanks!"

"I hope I helped you. Come back later…"

After that, I went out of the store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At first I wanted to buy the shield displayed at the Trading Post, but when I last opened my endless pouch, I saw inside of it my old and rusty Hylian shield, remember it? If I get it repaired, I could use the shield of my homeland, a shield that no one has never seen before around here, which makes it unique and only for me.

But actually my true reason to get it repaired were that get it repaired may cost less than a new shield…

I got to the place where the shop owner said, it was an outside-open shop. Behind the counter was a muscular man turned by the other side of the counter.

"Excuse me…"

He turned. He got a weird mask that covered the middle of his head and had some sort of binoculars attached to it. He started:

"Hey, alright there. How ya' doing?" he asked in a really funny accent from such a buff man like him.

"Hi, h-how ya' doing" I was trying my best to not to chuckle.

"Yeah come in, wa d'ya want?"

I got closer to the counter and smelled lubricant grease. Scent that I didn't like.

"Ahh! This place really smells"

"Ah, yeh. It's the furnace back there… what do ya' need?"

"Yeah… you repair shields?"

"Depends. Watcha got?"

I got out my endless pouch and showed him my old and rusty Hylian shield. He grabbed it with one hand and gave a quick look to it.

"Mmm! This is summat interesting! I've never seen anything like dis before…" He knocked it with his knuckles, and some oxide fell from it. "But, meh, it sure is in a bad state…"

"Can you repair it?"

"Yeh man, I sure can fix it, but it may take some time… leave it here and I'll have it repaired to the morning, kay?"

"Tomorrow? Ok then…"

I didn't had any real urge to get going today in search for that sword, so I accepted and told him that I would return tomorrow. We clasped our hands together to make it a deal, which almost made me lost my right hand because of his strong grip. I leaved my shield there and left the place.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was walking around thoughtfully and mixed with the people passing. I glanced upwards and saw that the clock marked exactly 4:12 Pm.

(Oh crap! The bar!)

While I was doing my shopping I became totally oblivious of the time and my work, so I rushed towards the east part of town and got inside of the milk bar swiftly.

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I closed the door as fast as I opened it. Mr. Barten noticed me instantly and watched me going downstairs, surely waiting for an explanation of why I came somewhat late to the job.

I stood in front of him and inhaled air to say something, but stopped when he pointed his finger towards the clock on the wall behind me. I bashfully turned to see the miniature of the clock on top of the clock tower that marked exactly the 4:14 hours and turned to him back with a guilty smile.

"You never had come late before, Al…" he said with his hands resting on his hips.

"Sorry Mr. Barten, but I have a good reason!" I tried to excuse myself.

"It better be a good explanation"

We both took a seat in front of the bar table.

"Okay, this is the thing…"

And so, I told him about what happened today. The mask salesman, the so called four sword, and that I need to go get it, and finally, my excuse for being late was that I needed to get prepared.

"… So you are leaving tomorrow, huh?…" He said looking at the ground.

"Yeah… the only thing that holds me back to not get going today is that my shield is getting repaired…"

"Al, think about it just one second…don't you think that leave town and search for that thing is an abrupt decision?"

"I'll go to the end of the world only to find a way back home…" I said holding a glass of Romani milk on my hand, and slowly shaking it. "And this is the only clue I have…"

"…But what about yer' horse? You have to be inside of town if you want to hear anything that could come up"

I turned to him. "Uh, come on Mr. Barten, we both know that any information will come up. I was actually planning to go outside of town and search for Epona by myself if a month passed" I said in a determinate tone that Mr. Barten never heard from me.

"…"

"Let's being realistic; if I don't resolve my own problems, then anyone else will do it for me…"

I hardly ever open like this to someone, but Mr. Barten is my closest friend, AND my boss.

"Well… I think that this is your last day working here then…"

"Yeah, I guess…"

Although he didn't want to admit it, I know he has grown fond of me as good friends, pals, dudes, bro's or whatever you want to call it.

He put the mop in front of my face again.

"Then do your best today! Come on! I want to see the floor as shiny as my head!"

In that moment, his bald head brighten with the light of the stage. I chuckled, patted my leg in laugher and grabbed the mop.

The laborious afternoon passed and I finished doing my respective chores before open the bar.

Mr. Barten and I played dominoes, where he was a fierce opponent, but I always end winning, or at least just today…

Mr. Barten told every costumer that came to the bar that I was leaving tomorrow for an adventure, and the night was full of "Really?"s "You are leaving?"s and "I'll miss you man!"s followed by several friendly handshakes. The regular costumers had grown fond of me too. I became their "Favorite bartender".

It's good to know that people around here appreciates me…

* * *

It was still "earlier" in the bar when Mr. Barten called me to talk behind the counter.

"Al, come here…"

"What is it?"

"I want you to rest earlier today, tomorrow you'll need a lot of energy on your journey"

I really didn't need the rest, it was barely the 12:37, and I got used to get to bed really late at night because of my job at the bar. But he was right, if I keep working like this, I will get up too late at the day as I usually do, and that graveyard is quite far and surely may take some time to get there… and I don't want to be in a graveyard at night by no means, no sir.

I nodded and he got out my usual pay of thirty rupees out of his pocket and gave them to me. And as he always does, he bring the tip's bottle. But before giving me its contents, I noticed that he threw a red rupee on it. I smiled. He gave me its contents that were more than usual. Maybe because the clients know that I'm leaving so they are trying to help me as they can.

"I'll pass here tomorrow before I go…"

Mr. Barten put his hand at my shoulder and said: "I know you will. Take care…"

* * *

**Yeh like it? well my surprise is *suspense drums* The next chapter will come out tomorrow!**

**somehow i found time between my studies and girlfriend, because since this part, everything is first-planned things, which makes me write at incredible speeds, like in the past Wednesday,i wrote like 4000 words in one sit! i'm inspired!**

**review and let me know what you think, it's free!**

**-Matt **


	6. Ch6: Detour to the Grassy Plains

**Here it is! Man, since here my ideas are flowing through my head! I'm inspired! **

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got up early from bed today. As I removed the blanket that covered me, I scratched my head and yawned. I wasn't used to get up this early.

I walked to the bathroom with the eyes half closed, and took off all my clothes and threw them randomly behind me and took a bath of frozen water. At the contact of the water with my skin, my body shivered, thing that woke me up.

After the bath, I looked myself in the bath's mirror and saw my abundant black hair still wet and fallen because of the water. I took my towel and dried it, and when I removed the towel from my head, it rearranged itself to my usual hairstyle: spiky. I looked at the comb that I bought like a week ago and threw it to the trash can.

(What a waste of five rupees… I don't even know why I bought it…it's impossible to comb my hair…)

I got out of the bathroom and opened my endless pouch and got out my new garments, but I first put on my usual brown pants and my pair of dark brown boots I had first.

Then I put the sleeved white undershirt that covered completely my arms up to the wrists. To be honest, I felt it tight in the arms, nothing to complain about actually. The chain mail was next. I felt this one heavy, it weighted like four pounds and covered all my torso until the hip and covered my shoulders as well.

(I feel buffer already!)

The red tunic was next. I couldn't tell if was comfy or not, because of the uncomfortable and heavy chain mail. It fitted me good, though, its sleeves are a little too short, which makes the sleeves of the chain notably visible.

I slipped my fingers through the leather of the fingerless gloves, that were the same color as my boots; dark brown. Each one of them covered my forearms. It covered my knuckles with metal edges. I buckled them firmly and tested its flexibility by making circles with my wrists.

Use the gloves was very important if I was going to use my sword constantly.

(Speaking of which…)

I glanced at my sword hanging on the wall in front of my bed. I grabbed it and buckled it on my back.

I scratched my head. (Now I'm ready?)

No.

I had to go for my shield first on west part of town, where I left it with that weird muscle guy.

I went downstairs and it was so earlier in the morning that Anju wasn't in the counter already. It must be before eight I though.

I have to come back to the Inn later anyway to pay the last night's stay.

The door wasn't open; the Inn opens at eight, so I got out my keys and unlocked the door and closed it with lock again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey mate! Howzit going?"

"Hey! How are ya'" I said trying to speak his language.

"I'll bring yer' shield this right now!"

He retrieved the shield.

"Here it is. This is one of mah best works I hafta tell ya'!"

He returned me my shield and it floated in the air above my hands in circles. Don't ask me why.

Every bit of oxide has disappeared, now it looks like new. Its frontal part had the crest of the Hylian knights; the triforce above a red bird while its background was metallic blue.

"Thanks!"

I put the shield on my back, hanging from the sword case's strap.

"I don't see dat design every day, so it was exciting working on it. The regular price for a repair is ten, but I enjoyed working on it, so I'll leave it at five"

"Really? that's cool!" I handed him a blue rupee.

He accepted it. "Gee, thanks. Ye should come back later! I upgrade things too! Upgrade!"

"Thanks! I'll come back"

We waved goodbye and I leave his post.

_-A traveler tunic (Checked!)_

_-A shield (Checked!)_

_-A bottled fairy/ red potion (Checked!)_

_-Fingerless gloves (Checked!)_

The list was done, but I still had one more errand on west part of town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Library ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I entered in and stepped on the red carpet on the floor, Mia noted my presence and greeted me.

"Alex! What happened yesterday? You looked a little upset…"

As I walked towards the counter she noted my traveling garments.

"Hey Mia" I smiled warmly at her with my right hand on my hip.

"…Why are you dressed like that?"

"Huh? This?" I looked at my clothes. "That doesn't matter…" I got out my endless pouch and got a blue book out of it. "I came to return this book" I handed it to her.

Though she was still waiting for an answer, she took the book and read its cover. ""Tales of Koholint Island"…" she looked at the list of rented books. "it's… barely at time…"

"… sorry if I was rude yesterday…" I bashfully said.

"No, you weren't rude, but why you were in such a rush?"

"I think I found a way back home…"

She knew that I wasn't from Termina. She got astonished and said nothing.

"But I need to get out of town now, so I came to return that book…"

"Outside of town? Alone? That's dangerous Alex! That's why you are dressed like that…"

"Sorry, but I need to get going right now…"

I walked towards the entrance door when she started. "Alex…"

"What?" I turned to her.

"Yesterday I wanted to tell you that-" she hesitated a moment before continuing with her phrase. "I-i wanted to tell you if w-we c-could go out sometime—together…" she sheepishly said.

My eyes grew wide and rapidly felt warm blood flowed through my cheeks. "Mia, i…" for first in a long time, I don't have nothing to say.

"But now you are going to leave in search for a way back your home… you're quite brave you know…"

I felt that I had to leave now, or else I could mess up by saying something stupid, thing that I do automatically when I don't have anything to say.

"Mia, I'm really sorry, but I need to leave now" I nicely said.

I grabbed the door knob with my hand and was going to open the door, but I turned to her instead, who had a disillusioned face. "But I'll come back and, and then we'll go out in a date Mia, I ensure you that" I said with my decided face.

She blushed and quickly smiled and her disappointed face disappeared. "… Just be careful out there please…"

"I'll see you later, Mia"

After those words, I got outside and closed the door behind me.

"Alex… never change…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ West Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I feel the urge to… )

I got out my endless pouch and covered my mouth with it and inhaled deeply.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" I threw the shout inside of the pouch.

The big space of the bag absorbed completely the sound of it, not making a noise on the outside. My throat however, didn't have the same luck.

(Why does this happen to me Nayru!)

This was a cruel joke; the girl I like asks me if we could go out in a date exactly when I need to leave.

(This sucks hard…)

I sighed heavily and cleared my mind. I have more important things to worry about now, but I cannot help but lament my bad luck. But now, I made her a promise, and I'm the kind of guy who doesn't break them. The next time I'm in town, we'll go out on-a date.

Just that though made blush.

I shook my head and snapped back to reality. There are more people passing through, so it must be later in the day, so I directed myself to the Stock Pot Inn and pay for my last stay of yesterday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I handed Anju the twenty rupees worth my stay last night, but she obviously noted my style of clothes, so she had to ask it.

"Umm… sorry but, are you going out somewhere?"

"Actually"

I got the Inn's keys out from my endless pouch, threw them to the air and caught them.

"…I'm going far away, so I won't sleep in here in a pair of days" I extended my gloved hand and offered her the keys. "I've already taken all my things out of the room"

She looked at me worriedly before taking them. "You are going to search for your horse?"

To simplify the things, I nodded.

"I had seen this coming…"

"Uh? Why?"

"I knew since the first time I saw you, that being on city wasn't your way of living…"

"…how do you know that?"

And yes, I actually didn't like to live in city; I preferred my old and peaceful life at my home ranch. The bustling of city just didn't blend well with me. And to be honest, I just lived inside of the city because I was waiting for information about Epona, which never arrived.

(giggle)"I dunno, maybe it's just me…"

I must be going now; I don't want to be in a graveyard at night. "Well, thank you very much for your hospitality Anju"

"You'll always be welcomed here Alex, come back later"

"You got that right!"

Afterwards, I left the Inn. Now, only one place remains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I promised Mr. Barten that would pass by here before leaving, and as I told before, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't break promises.

When I closed the door behind me, Mr. Barten noticed me downstairs. I friendly waved my hand saluting him while walking through the stairs.

"Alex? Boy! I didn't recognize you at first because of those clothes!"

"Hey Mr. Barten. I just passed by before leaving as I told"

"Ah yes! Hang on a second; I have something for you…"

He then leave to the room behind the bar table, and got back in a blink. He was holding something behind his back…

"Here you go! This is for your good service on this bar!" He then revealed that he was holding a bottle of Romani Milk, my favorite between the two I was permitted to drink.

I happily accepted the bottle. "With the bottle? Great! Thanks Mr. Barten!" I putted the bottle of milk inside of my endless pouch.

"No, thanks to you for help me in the bar; you totally deserve that and more"

"No, Mr. Barten, thanks for letting me work here" I gave him a warm smile.

"Knowing you, that won't last even **two gulps** hehe. Oh, and by the way, if you need a place to stay while outside of town, then go to Romani Ranch. Ya' know that Cremia will welcome youuuu!" He made a mischievous smile.

This time he made it; I blushed. "I told you that I don't like her! humph!"

He fell to the ground laughing. "Hahaha! Lil' Al blushed! Hahahahaha!"

I looked at him with my arms crossed and rolled my eyes. Mr. Barten in most of the time is serious, but he had his moments of childishness that I even lacked now.

He then got back on his feet. "Hehe…" (cough) " Erm now seriously. I wish you the best luck out there Al. I hope that you find your way back home right away"

"Thanks Mr. Barten… I'll pass by here again the next time I'm on city"

"Just be careful out there, kay?" He pointed a finger at me.

I nodded. "Kay'!"

"Such a young man like you traveling around… quite inspiring! Now go!"

"I'll see you around!"

See ya' around Al!"

I climbed upstairs and leave the bar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everything was set. This is it, I'm leaving town to search for that so-called Four Sword that can get me back home.

I wasn't nervous though, I actually felt eased and amused. There's nothing that could get on my way now.

Unless….

I raised my left hand over my shoulder and grabbed the hilt of my sword just be sure that was there.

"Phew!"

As I said, nothing.

I walked towards the exit gate, where was the guard there, snoozing, but when I came closer to him, he reacted.

"… The canyon at Stone Tower lies this way. Be careful"

"Thanks sir"

I walked past him and exited town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There it was, Termina Field. Its east part was rocky and surely, hard to travel in. As soon as I got out of the town walls, the sun hit me directly into the face.

The east gate has six pillars, marking the path near town. These pillars had strange things painted on them, like someone licking… the triforce?

(Huh?)

I got near them and inspected it. It could be a coincidence, but the thing carved on it had the emblem of the goddesses of Hyrule; the triforce.

That's very strange; no one in Town has mentioned the triforce or something like it. I wonder why is carved in these pillars.

Maybe I'm wrong, I can't be. But to get sure, I need an exact replica of it.

I looked at the back on my left hand with the intention of see my birthmark that was shaped like it, but found that was completely covered by the leather of the fingerless gloves.

I had another replica. I brought my shield from my back to my right hand and glanced the emblem of the triforce on it. It was the same.

(What does this mean?)

I put my left hand on my chin while I still grabbed the shield with my right hand.

I could´ve made a lot of questions without answers right in that moment, but suddenly heard a squeaky sound very close.

I glanced back and saw a mouse with a wickedly big grin and a bomb by tail running dangerously fast towards me.

"A Bombchu!"

And it was very close, so I thought fast and punched it away with my shield. The impact made it fly through the air a little, but when it fell, its bomb-tail made contact with the ground, exploding.

I ended unharmed thanks by the protection of the shield.

I better get out of there fast, these monsters are never alone.

For the moment, I quitted inspecting the columns, and continued my way to my destination, evading the other Bombchus in sight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I continued through the path that the pillars marked. Evading the bombchus is easier to say rather than do it. My sword was totally useless in this situation; if its sharp blade touch the bombchu in a slash or just a slightly touch, the mouse explodes anyways.

Now my only reliable weapon is my shield, the defense is the best attack now.

I come across a fallen pillar on the dry ground, and behind it was a bombchu with a flashlight attached with duct tape on its back, surely guarding the place.

I crouched behind the fallen column to be out of its sight. I raised my head to glance at it trying to learn its movement pattern and find an opportunity to get past unnoticed. The mouse turned, but I quickly bent down again.

(What to do. What to do…)

I glanced at a rock at my side. I grabbed it. Maybe if I threw it away, that may distract it…

I made a wicked grin.

(Or better yet…)

I peeked at the other side of the column, and quickly threw the rock directly at the guarding bombchu. The impact of the rock made it explode instantly. Now the way is clear.

I stood up and shook clean my pants. I walked pass by the fallen pillar.

I didn't walked too long until I glanced a metallic fence in my way.

(Huh?)

I walked in a faster pace and got in front of these metallic bars. I glanced left and right, and it was blocking the path forward completely.

I grabbed them and tried to shake them with no success, they were firmly stuck in the ground.

(Who left this here?)

This fence was totally blocking my way forward the canyon. I put my hand on my chin trying to figure out how to get past them.

(I can't jump over it, it's too high… I can't climb it either; it has pointy peaks at its top, and I don't want to get impaled…)

(No… I CAN jump over them; I just need… a horse)

While taming Epona back in my home ranch, I learned that horses, (if they run fast enough) can jump over high fences such as this right here.

(Sigh) (Ah… Epona…)

I glanced at the other side of the fence, and that was where the canyon started, and so, my destination: the graveyard.

The only possible way to get across is riding a horse, there's no other way. I grabbed my hair in frustration.

(Aaahhh! I just started traveling today, and now I can't continue further because of a stupid metal fence? This is bullshit man…)

Now I have to get a horse, but where… mmm…

_**(Flashback)**_

_"Oh, and by the way, if you need a place to stay while outside of town, then go to Romani Ranch. Ya' know that Cremia will welcome youuuu!"_

_**(End of flashback)**_

(Romani Ranch, huh?)

I got out my general map of Termina. I pointed my finger in an open green plain southwest of town, marked by the map as "Romani Ranch".

(Mmm… if it is a ranch, then there may be horses on it… Cremia surely will lend me one…But it's quite far from here… it will take me all the day to get there…)

I put the map back into my endless pouch and stretched my arms.

"Oh, well, better get there before sunset if I want to progress just a little today…" (sigh)

I returned the way I came, and evaded the bombchus again. Now my next destination is Romani Ranch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I walked in faster pace than before, and had to face a pair of bombchus with my shield, nothing to worry about.

Then the grass was starting to cover the ground. I passed a circular shaped building with a big telescope on top of it. Surely, the Astral Observatory.

After battling a pair of green Chu-chus, I passed some exaggeratedly big trees. I stopped by a little wooden gate that marked the way to the southern swamp. I got out my map and checked my position.

I put my finger in my actual position south of Clock Town, and checked for Romani Ranch that was somewhat close at the end of Milk Road.

(Milk Road? Hey! I remember that!)

I put away the map in my endless pouch and glanced at the sign between the big wooden structures that, far away, marked the beginning of the road towards the ranch.

But those memories had a bad part…

I walked through the tall grass of the field towards Milk Road, trying to not get near that weird stone cleaved into the ground that I touched weeks ago.

Just thinking about it made my head hurt a little, and my birthmark at the back of my left hand burned me slightly.

I swear that I didn't go near it, but I still could smell the metal and burned plastic from it, like if its scent had spread farther.

I ignored the stone cleaved in the ground in the middle of the grassy field I was passing, and got through the big wooden pillars and finally entered the path known as Milk Road.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Road ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since now, the way split in two; in to the left and another further ahead, I decided by the most scientifically way to decide.

I covered my eyes with my right hand, and pointed my left one further, and started spinning around. After Ten spins, I uncovered my hands and saw that my left hand pointed to the way to the left. Science is always right, so I headed towards that path. There was a sign next to it, but I couldn't read it because I was dizzy because of the spins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gorman Track ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of the path, I glanced two mans with weird mustache, skinny and with big noses. Both of them had the same face, but one was taller than other. One of them had blue ranch garments while the smaller one, had yellow ones. They stared at me while I approached.

(Hey! I recognize these guys…)

They were the Gorman Brothers. I've seen them before in town while delivering their "Gorman milk" to the Milk Bar, which, I didn't liked, it tasted like if it were watered down. Unlike I did with Cremia, I didn't help them bringing their deliveries inside of the bar. Maybe because they always have the face of being planning something bad or how often they whispered to each other.

_**(Background: **__**Conker's Bad Fur Day music: Danger Lurks)**_

"What do you want?" The smaller brother said, holding a red bucket with his left hand. "You know what this place is? This is the Gorman's Brothers' horse training center!"

Science never worked to me before…

"You got no business here if you got no horse. Now beat it! Scram!"

That last sentence about me not having a horse made me frown.

I inhaled air to say something, but then the other brother started. "Brother! Don't be harsh on the boy! He may be a potential costumer!" He said with his arms crossed behind his back.

The older brother turned at me and raised a large eyebrow. "Uh… it's you… the young lad working for Mr. Barten…"

"Seriously?" the younger brother followed. "What was yer' name lad? Alphonse? Alfred? Albert?"

"It's Alexander Lon for you, thank you very much"

"Alex-ander, right… what happened to you then? Mr. Barten fired you and you want to work here then?" The younger one said with a mocked tone.

I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to kick that guy's ass.

"Don't listen to him… What brings you to our honorable ranch?"

I turned to him. I'm here, so I better ask. "I was wondering if you two, respectful gentlemen could lend me a horse" I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh, we do rent horses, right young brother?"

"Yeh tell that, big brother!"

"I´ll bring you one of our fastest horses, just for you!"

The older brother got inside of their stable and came with a "horse".

"This is good for you!" He showed me a horse with white fur and silver mane. He looked fine I must admit.

"Show me its teeth" I asked. The better way to find out how is the health of a horse is by watching its teeth.

He opened the horse's mouth and revealed some yellow and dirty set of teeth.

I knew It wasn't a good choice, but I wanted to see how far they can get with their unknowing.

"How much for the rent?" I asked with my arms crossed in front of my chest.

"For ye'… four-hundred"

That was an exaggeratedly high price for a rent, and the horse is not that healthy, but my most reason to not to rent it is that I just bring one hundred rupees with me.

"Uh… maybe not, thanks!" I turned to leave.

"The rents will cost ya' double in other places!" He yelled as I leaved.

While I walked outside of their track, I could hear that they whispered something between them. Not that I care anyways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Road ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, now, I'll go STRAIGHT this time. I hope that Romani Ranch is near, my feet are killing me already because of how much I've walked to get this far. My back hurts too, and it's getting really late in the day, now the sun is going straight to the west.

(I hope to get a rest in there…)

* * *

**Well, what do you think? finally out of the city! Any questions and/or constructive criticism are gladly welcomed in a review, and i happily respond every one of them. **

**Since now i tell you that the next chapter will be a little... "different" so stay tuned! **

**See ya all next week guys, take care!**

**-Matt**


	7. Ch7: An Unexpected Visitor

**Helloooo! sorry for the wait but i'll explain it all at the end's author notes. **

**You want to know what makes "different" this chapter? Read it and find out!**

***EDIT* Hey you! yeah, you! i've noticed that a lot of people are skipping chapter 6! why? i don't know... if you haven't read chapter 6 yet, then i suggest you that go and read it now! Thank you for you cooperation, Have a nice day :)**

* * *

I opened the stable's door with one hand since my other arm was busy holding the fourth and last bucket with fresh milk of the day. As I closed the door behind me, my little sister noticed me, and left aside her chore of caressing the cows that I've already milked today.

"Hey sis! That's the last bucket today?" She said with her hands closed in front of her, like attempting to make a jump.

"Hmm, yeah" I smiled at her in response to her eagerness to stop doing the chores. "It's the last one, sister"

She happily jumped in the air repeatedly. "Yay! Yay! Finally!"

"But!" I stopped her in her celebration. "What!" She froze in midair. "What is it? Romani wants to eat now! Romani's hungry!" She finally landed her feet in the ground.

"Just put this milk inside of a container and you are free today"

"That's all? Sounds easy for Romani!" I handed her the bucket filled with milk, and she had an empty milk jug already at her side.

"I'll go and get the last cow to the stable and I'll do the dinner this fastest" I said while snapped my fingers and making a warm smile to her.

I put my hand on the door knob, but glanced at her before leave outside, and saw her that she already had the milk inside the container. "Seal it good, all right?" I said.

"Don't worry sis! Romani got this covered!" she said as she put a wielding mask on her face and got out a little flamethrower to seal good the container.

I giggled to that scene and got outside of the stable.

I sighed wearily when I remembered that the cow that I last milked was all the way south of the ranch.

(uhg… why it has to be at the very end of the ranch…)

Uh, come on Cremia, just do this last push today…

I started to walk towards the cow last was against my own will. My back hurt, and so was my feet, and everything that passed through my head was the comfort and soft bed and how good it feels when you relax at your own bed.

I shook my head. I can't think about that, I won't slack off in my work, it's just this last thing today and that's all. Since the moment that our father died four years ago, I knew that all the ranch depended on me, and if I slack off just one little bit, then my worst fear could arise, the decay of the entire ranch and so of our family. And I don't want to carry with that guilt over my shoulders.

I can't help but think about that every time that I'm starting to relax.

I finally reached the cow; it was eating grass as it normally does all day. I patted her shoulder. "Come on girl, I'll take you to the stable" I said with an uninterested face. She mooed in response and slowly followed my steps towards the stable.

Everything pointed that this was going to be a normal and boring day as always, but that changed when I noticed someone's silhouette at the entrance of the ranch not too far away from where I was. The silhouette kept walking through the marked road. I slowed my walking pace to glance more carefully. I had no doubt that it was a young man with a large and spiky black hair and dressed red garments. He was glancing at every side except forward, that made him didn't notice me yet.

(A visitor?)

We rarely got any visitors around here today. Most of the time, they come only on Saturday to bet in the doggy racetrack that Mamamu Yan owns at the other side of the ranch. He looks fairly distracted though, but it's just a matter of time until our path crosses.

I acted like didn't noticed and kept walking towards the stable, but when the cow and I crossed the dirt path, the cow mooed, and attracted the visitor's attention. Then he noted my presence, but I didn't turn to him until I heard his steps closer.

"Hey Cremia!" I recognized that voice.

I turned to see the young man, and at the second recognized his face as well. He was Alex, the often willed to help me young man that worked for Mr. Barten at the milk bar. In my opinion, he's kinda handsome. It was nice see a familiar face outside of town.

"Alex! How are you? What brings you here to the ranch?"

He sighed in exhaustion, but tried to cover his weariness by casually scratching his long and spiky black hair. "Heh, I'm doin' fine!. I was wondering if you could rent me, you know, a horse..."

"A horse? Yeah! Of course I'll lend you one if you want Alex"

He genuinely smiled "Perfect!"

"Just let me get this cow to the stable and I'll show you our horses"

"Sure!"

He walked me by my side while walking towards the direction where the stable and the house lied and the cow slowly followed us. I couldn't help but notice that he was panting a little while walking.

"Umm… are you okay? You seem tired, you know"

—Really? I think that I walked a lot to get here…"

I turned to him amazed. "What? You walked all the way here from the Town?"

His expression didn't change. "I think that double of that or even more…" He seriously said, without any sign of fake on his tone.

"That is brutal! Your feet must be killing you!"

Then, the lost mare that came to our ranch started: "Neigh!"

He glanced at the mare, which was caged behind a little stable just at the side of the house. "Uh?"

"Neigh!" The brown mare made a little jump of excitement.

His dark blue eyes suddenly widened. "Epona!" he started running towards the caged horse.

"…?" I was dumbfounded.

(That's how my sister calls that horse… it's his maybe?)

I caught up on him in front of the house. He was petting the mare on its chin with a hand through the bars that kept her from flee. And the horse was calmly accepted his caresses.

The horse snorted. (_Hey, where the f*ck you've been? You pinhead bastard!)_

"Is that your horse?" I asked.

He stopped petting her and turned at me with a big smile on his face. "Yep! Her name's Epona. How did she get in here?"

"She came by herself to the ranch like three weeks ago. She was very hungry when she first came. Don't worry, we have taken good care of her since then"

"I'm so lucky to find her here! How could I thank you!"

Just then, my sister came out from the stable at the side of the house, and came to us. "Sister! Romani has finished sealing the cont-" She glanced at our visitor. "Hey, who are you?"

He waved a hand saluting. "Hi!"

She wasn't used to see foreigners in the ranch. "Romani, this is Alex. He comes from Clock Town for his horse" I turned to him. "This is my sister, Romani"

"Epona is yours?"

He raised an eyebrow. "How did you—know her name?"

"Because she looks like Grasshopper's horse. She's identical!"

"Grasshopper?" He said, confused.

I had to interrupt. "Romani, you see that cow there?" I pointed towards the cow that I left all alone not too far.

"Yes, sister. Why?"

"Please get it to the stable while I get the dinner ready, ok?"

"But siiisteeer-uhg!" She then headed towards the cow with an annoyed frown.

I turned to Alex. "Sorry, but I have to go"

"No sir. You know how dangerous is travel at night?"

"Uh…" He tried to think about some valid argument, but didn't found any.

"I'll take that as a yes" I opened the door of the house. "Please, come in"

He bashfully nodded and stepped inside the house. When he closed the door behind him, he glanced all over the house. He sighed and eased his look, relieved for being inside a house.

(Giggle) "Don't be shy! Take a sit while I do the dinner"

"Thanks, but I'm not hun-" Then, his stomach growled loudly interrupting his phrase. (Yet another time you betray me, stomach…)

I giggled and lit the oven with firewood from the fireplace. He proceeded to take off his sturdy shield and sword off his back, placing them against the stairs and finally took the seat and rested his back against the wooden chair.

"Sooo… you are finally traveling huh?" I said as I broke the eggs and placed its yolk in the frying pan.

"Yeah. I think I know a way to go back my homeland, but I needed a horse to continue further on my way, so I thought that you could lend me a horse, but what I found? That Epona was In here all the time!"

"You never told me that you've lost your horse"

"Well, anyone in Clock Town knew about a lost horse, so I thought that you didn't know either. Now I feel kinda dumb for not to ask before…"

"How did Epona get lost?" I asked.

Just then, my sister opened the door. "Romani's done sister!" and she glanced at Alex. "Ooooh! You are going to dinner with us? Great!" She said as she took a sit. "Hey, Alex! How did Epona get lost?" she copied my words.

He chuckled "Hehe, it's complicated…"

Romani rested her arms in the dining table while Alex told us about how he lost Epona. I listened to every detail of his story while cooking. That he was going to a Knight's Academy but, got ambushed by some bandits in the forest, who unfortunately, ran away with her. And then he fell through a hole, and ended in Clock Town, story which was consistent to what he told me before while working in the bar.

I couldn't help but feel bad for him. He's gone through many things. His separation with his family, his lost horse, and being completely alone in a city he doesn't know must been kind of stressing for such a young man. But yet, he's always willed to help me whenever I came to the bar to make a deliver. But still tries to cover his problems with a casual smile.

"But still, I don't know what happened to the bandits, but now, I have Epona with me, and that is all that matters…"

"Dinner's ready!" I gave Romani two scrambled eggs, and gave Alex three.

"Thanks!" Both said.

Romani then started to eat, but Alex politely waited for me to sit down with my own food. I served a glass of milk to each of us.

(I hope he likes it…)

He stared at the food impatiently and obviously hungry, but to my surprise, when I sat down; he immediately grabbed his fork and started to eat swiftly. He eats like a beast! When he put the food inside his mouth, he immediately grabbed his fork to get more food into his mouth, swallowing it in a blink.

"…!"

"…?"

I stared at him speechless, and so did Romani with her fork still with food on her hand.

"Mmm… very nice!" He said between munches.

He then left the fork to grab his glass of milk, and drank all its content in one big gulp. He then grabbed his fork again just encountered with the empty plate. He chuckled sheepishly.

"Hey Cremia, it's not just for say it but, this is the most delicious food I've ever eat! It tasted delicious!"

I giggled and blushed a little. "Hehe, thanks Alex. I would like that other person could think the same way…" I said looking at Romani.

Romani just gave me an annoyed face and continued eating her own food.

I was amazed by how fast Alex eats, I haven't even touched my fork and he already ended his food. I saw this like an opportunity to talk a little.

"Mmm, well… how are you planning go back to homeland then?" I asked.

"Well, the thing is, I went to the library that you told me, and just yesterday met this mask salesman who had a wide and wicked grin on his face. He told me about a sword of an ancient civilization east of Termina that has the power to ¨travel between worlds¨ as he said. I prepared my things to leave and said farewell to Mr. Barten today, and got outside of town"

"You know Mr. Barten?" Romani said after drinking her glass of milk.

"Yeah, I worked for him some time"

"it must be hard for him to work alone again…" I said.

"What happened then?" Romani said eager for him to continue his story.

"The salesman marked the place where the sword must be on my map…" He then got out a map of Termina, extended it and pointed his finger to a certain place marked with a red circle. "Ikana Graveyard as the map says"

I shrugged. "A… graveyard?"

"WooOOOooah! That sounds spooky!"

He returned the map inside his bag. "Yeah! I don't like it either!"

"So why you stopped by here then?"

"In the middle of the way, I found a large and tall metal fence blocking my way. I found no way to get past it in that moment, but my experience told me that a horse could jump that fence if it run fast enough"

"So you walked through east and south Termina Field, and Milk Road!"

"That's Crazy!" Romani snapped.

"I'll get there early in the morning, obviously riding Epona to jump over that fence"

(Is he going there, just like that?)

He has nothing else to rely on. He's convinced that he's going to get that sword and get to his home just like that… But now that he found his horse, he looks even more convinced to go further into his adventure.

"Romani finished!" She said as she drank the remaining milk o her glass. "Romani's going to brush her teeth!" she said as she put her empty plate and glass on the sink and went to the bathroom.

"Heh, your sister is funny. She kinda reminds me of my little brother…" Alex stated.

"Yeah, I'm trying to keep her happy ever since our father died…" I stood up from my chair and put my empty plate and glass on the sink, and so he did the same.

"I'll wash the dishes" He said.

"Oh, no! You don't have to!"

"It's the least I can do to thank you for your hospitality" He said as he took off his fingerless gloves and put them at the side of the sink.

I nodded and smiled at him thankfully. A part of me didn't want to wash the dishes anyway, and I felt relieved that I didn't have to do that certain thing. I was also relieved that someone did my job just for one. Even more so that someone completely disinterested like Alex, did it just to help me a little.

I sat down in the dining table.

"So… you have a little brother too?" I didn't know anything else to come up.

"Yeah… Nodro. He's identical to me, with the difference that he's blonde, like my father…" He said, focused on his current labor.

I rested my shoulders in the table. "You miss your family don't you?"

He sighed. "Exactly…"

"But don't you think that going out there, searching for a magical sword and putting your life in danger with all those monsters out there are not a little too much?"

"It's way better than do nothing while lamenting myself, I wouldn't win anything by doing that. That's why I accepted go for that sword. No one is going to do me the favor to go and get it for me. I'm the only one who I can rely on…"

"…" I was shocked. I've never met someone with a stronger will. I never thought that such words could come out from such a young man like him. He's more mature than he appears.

"Besides… I wanted to stretch my legs anyway" He chuckled.

Just then, Romani came out from the bathroom. She yawned. "Romani's going to bed. Night-night Alex!"

"G'night" He beamed at her while washing the dishes.

She then got upstairs towards our bedroom, and soon as I heard the door close, he finished washing the dishes, and dried his hands with his red tunic. He turned to me and nodded in confirmation that he finished his work.

I stood up. "I'll show you our guest room"

He grabbed his pair of fingerless gauntlets from the side of the sink and nodded. I walked towards the beginning of the stairs and grabbed the knob of the door at the corner of the stairs, with him behind me. I opened the wooden door and we both got inside.

"This is it" I warmly smiled at him.

He glanced to our father's room. The gaze of his dark blue eyes passed through the big window that faced directly against the door, by the shelf with three empty drawers, and by the lit candles at the walls that lit the entire room. But he couldn't stop staring at the bed at the rightmost corner of the room. He looked at it like if he hasn't seen a bed in years, thing that told me that his body was desperately asking for rest, but didn't expressed it himself.

"Make yourself at home"

He wearily sighed. "Thank you"

"We'll be upstairs, if you need anything, feel free to go and ask, Okay?"

"Don't worry, I won't bother you"

I smiled because of his selflessness. "Good night"

"Thanks for letting me stay Cremia, good night"

After that, I got out of the room. After closing door behind me, I silently giggled.

(He's… cute)

He was totally different from the average men in Clock Town which, most of them are, fat, ugly, weird or even disrespectful. Alex was nothing like them, and I admired him because of that. Why can't more men be like him? I exhaled air and sighed, and it quickly turned into a yawn. I had to go to bed too.

I turn off the fire of the fire place and turn off the lanterns. When I was going to turn off the last lantern, I glanced at the sword and shield that Alex had left against the stairs. I better give them to him. I grabbed his metal shield and his sword sheathed on its case. They were heavy, I didn't knew how much these things could weigh, the sword and its case itself weighed like four pounds, and the shield like seven. I grabbed them with one hand, which made my body swing at my right side because of the weight.

(How can he carry this on his back all the day?)

I glanced at the guest room's door, and thought about returning him his equipment; but I decided not to. I don't want to bother him, he sure looked tired. I placed his sword and shield in the exact place he left them, and got upstairs towards my and my sister's bedroom.

When I stepped in, Romani was lying in her bed with her light-blue nightgown. She was trying to sleep; she covered her ears with a pillow when I got in, because of the screeching of the door while opening it.

"Less noise pleaseeee"

I closed the door in a way that it wouldn't make any noise, and silently turned the knob to close the door. I opened the wardrobe and got out my usual white nightgown. It had the same design as Romani's, but had different color and obviously, was larger than hers. While I was undressing from my work clothes, Romani spoke:

"And sis… what do you say about our visitor? You knew him before?" Romani said, hiding herself within her blanket.

"Well, yeah. Alex works for Mr. Barten at the town since about a month or so. He helps me while I do the deliveries getting the milk from the wagon to the bar"

"And why Romani can't help you like that? I can carry the containers too…"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Romani, we had discussed that many times… someone has to watch for the cows…" I slipped my head out of the nightgown, and did the same with my arms.

She freed herself out of her prison of blankets. "Okay, okay! I get it…"

I sat in front of mirror and combed my large crimson hair. In the mirror I checked every detail of my hair before comb it. I had some unkempt bits of hair here and there. I traveled my hands all around those parts.

I felt quite embarrassed by having the hair like that in front of a man like Alex, thing that it's inevitable because of the constant work at the ranch. I started to gently comb my hair while watching myself on the mirror.

"Sister… haven't you noted that Alex looks a lot like Grasshopper?" My sister said.

Grasshopper?... oh yeah, I remember! That boy clad in green that became friend of my sister a year ago… He was very kind with us; he even defended me once of some bandits that threatened to steal our milk. That was sooo sweet from his part. He stayed with us a few days after the ***** incident and left to his "homeland". He didn't talk a lot though…

Now that I think about it, their faces are very similar…

"Yeah, they look alike"

"And don't you think that it's a great coincidence that he has a horse that looks like Epona too?"

"Very strange indeed…" I wasn't paying much attention to her because I was focused on combing my hair.

(Yawn) "…turn off the lights already! Romani wants to sleep!"

I finished combing my hair when my mind finally processed her words. (Oh! I forgot the candle downstairs) I got stood up. "I'll be back in a minute"

I carefully closed the door and got downstairs, where the last lit candle was illuminating the principal room.

As I turned it off, the darkness of the night enveloped me. But I noticed some light radiating from the inside of the guest room, where Alex was. He must've forgotten to turn off the lights and surely is asleep already.

I hesitated a moment before knocking the door. As I stared at the light coming from inside of the room there was no response.

I slowly opened the door and saw him, peacefully lying asleep on the bed, with his arms extended from side to side of the bed, and had one leg on the bed while the other one was touching the floor. He had put on a dark blue undershirt and brown shorts.

I felt relieved that he was resting after all the way he had to walk to get here.

I slowly walked towards the first of the lit candle that was at the side of the door and blew it off. Another one remained though, and was at the desk at the side of his bed. I gulped and walked in a way that my feet couldn't make any noise. When I got in front of the desk, I couldn't help but glance at him. His black hair spread around the pillow he was resting his head. For some seconds, I stared at the muscles of his strong arms, with veins marked around them. And his chest, marked on his blue shirt… When I glanced lower at him, thoughts passed through my mind. Thoughts that shouldn't be passing through the mind of a non-married woman…

(Cremia! What are you thinking! Snap out of it!)

I firmly closed my eyes and shook my head almost violently to get those thoughts out of my head while blushing. I blew off the fire of the candle and now only the light of the ***** passed through the window facing the door and its dim light ended in the floor. I finally had my hand on the knob on the door and turned it open, when I glanced at him for last time. He hasn't moved one bit from his position, further proof that he was indeed in a heavy sleep.

(It's a shame that he has to go tomorrow…)

I always enjoyed whenever he was around. He has something that makes me ease my mind every time we talk or met. I felt it like an escape from my constant work and problems and I must admit that… I have a little crush on him, but I don't express myself easily like my sister.

(sigh) (Oh well… he has more important things to worry about…)

I closed the door behind me.

(I wonder… if I can be happy with someone just for once…)

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**Sigh... i really wanted to make this longer but i left it there to upload it today. About the wait, i'm going to be honest; i lacked the will to write in these lasts weeks because of the pressure of the final exams. For example, i did the half of this chapter like two weeks ago and yesterday i wrote the other half. i wasn't sure how a Cremia's POV could end up, but i ended it liking it since my girlfriend helped me with it.**

**Now, i have a final announcement. i ALMOST can assure you that the next chapter will come up the next week, because it's when the things start to get epic. Someone asked me about if i was going to put some epic sword battles, and hell yeah there will be. For example, i enjoyed a lot writing the sword fight part of the first chapter, now imagine that multiplied by 10! that's what i have to say for what i have planned for the next chapter.**

**/Review Question/ What do you think about the Cremia's POV? did you liked it? Answer this question in a delicious review from you! Because you know, It's free!**

**Stay tuned, because the things will get rather interesting the next chapter. Anonymous reviews are ON. See you all next week!**

**-Matt**


	8. Ch8: The Ways of the Swordsmen

**Why, hello! Here is another chapter right out from the delicious Word's oven! i enjoyed writing this, and you'll see why. The audio option in this chapter is strongly recommended. Remember how it works? just copy&paste the name of the music on youtube and all is set!**

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A black sea of nothingness extended as far as my eyes could perceive. I was quite familiarized with this background and it took me less than two seconds to know where I was.

Once again I was dreaming and knew what to expect. I glanced at both sides just to meet the exact same sight, nothing.

But there was something more to it, my body felt all light and soon realized that I wasn't stepping on anything; I was levitating. To my misfortune, when I glanced down to see my feet floating, I sighted at the same monster that has been haunting me on every nightmare I've had before coming below me, with its mouth wide open, revealing its wide and spiky fangs and its throat.

I had no way out of this, so all I could do was put my arms around my face in a pathetic way to defend myself against the enormous creature.

But just then, a source of light came from the back of my left hand. Once again my triangle-shaped birthmark was shinning. Its light started to consume all the darkness around and even repelled the creature below me. I stared at it until the light itself consumed me.

The light blinded me and felt great warmth all around my body, and my conscience was totally absorbed by it.

"Don't be afraid of your own anger…" I fading voice said in between the blinding light.

(I… I know that voice…)

"Just let it go…"

"…What? What do you mean!" I shouted.

But the voice continued its speech. "Or else you shall shortly perish…"

Those words struck deep inside of my mind not like a menace but more like a warning. Then, out of all contexts, I felt that something was grabbing my arm. No… it was rather pulling it…

"Hey! Wake up!"

"…Huh?" I slowly opened my eyes and saw Cremia's little sister Romani, insisting on waking me up.

She gripped my left arm with her both hands. "Come on! It's time for breakfast Alex!" Romani said with a childish smile.

"…Breakfa-aaah!" She inadvertently pulled my arm, making me stand up and, much obliged, follow her steps. "Come on! My sister made pancakes!" She rushed all the way out of the room and so I had too. We passed through the already opened door and Cremia, who was just serving the plates on the dining table, greeted me.

"Hey Alex. Good morning!"

I lazily grunted while sobbing my eyes. "…Good morning…" My brain hasn't turned on for good yet.

Romani let her grip from my arm and sat in her chair, and I did the same on another chair. I yawned and started dozing even with the food right in front of me at the table. When Cremia sat, she noted that I was having a hard time trying to awake. She whispered to her sister. "Aww… poor thing… he's still tired…"

Romani swallowed the piece of pancake that was munching before respond. "Romani bets that he's not used to get up this early!" She said it clearly more than whispering.

Meanwhile, I was recalling what the voice on my dream said. (Let out what? Perish?) I was getting asleep again, but as my head lowered, I smelt the scent of homemade-delicious-sweet bread. I managed to open an eye and hungrily stared the pile of pancakes covered in honey with it. With my strong will, I grabbed the fork and cut a little part of the pile of pancakes and without hesitation got it in my mouth.

A spark ran through my stomach and asked more of it. I swiftly opened my eyes, and all of the sudden I was fully awakened. With the fork, I cut the pile of pancakes in four- what the hell, in two parts slicing it by the middle. I trusted the fork into one pile, opened my mouth and swallowed it after two munches. The sisters watched and, like yesterday got amazed. They exchanged looks of surprise.

"Umm…Alex…" Cremia said.

I left the glass of milk with the middle of its content. "-Yeah?" I said after drinking the milk.

"You… always eat like that?"

I scratched my head and chuckled. "Yeah! Hehe…" I continued to eat my meal which, got it all into my mouth and swallowed it with certain ease. My hungry have been satisfied. "Delicious!"

The redheaded sisters stared at me surprised. "You've already finished?" both of them asked me at the same time.

I drank the remaining milk on my glass and stood up. "Yep!" I grabbed my belly and smiled. "Thanks for the breakfast! I'll better get ready and get going…"

"Uh, come on Alex, there's no need to hurry" Cremia said.

"No, really! I don't want to end up in a graveyard at night!" I joked.

I knew that the trip could take long even with Epona, and I don't know how much time I'll be around those parts so the earlier I can get to there the better.

She giggled "Uh, that's right! Tee-hee!" Her sister giggled as well.

"Can I take a bath?" I asked curiously.

"Of course! You don't have to ask"

I nodded."Thanks!"

When I started walking towards the bathroom at the very end of the wall of the staircase, I suppressed a big pain that ran through my legs. At the very first step I took, I frowned in pain, but didn't expressed anything else thing that made my pain go unnoticed by the sisters still eating. When I closed the door behind me, I rested my hands on my knees.

(Daaammn!)

My both legs felt like two pairs of rocks making every movement painfully. That long walk I did yesterday is claiming its toll on me now. I have to get over it, there's no other choice.

(I said that I wanted to stretch my legs but I think that exaggerated. Just slightly…)

I silently groaned in pain as I got undressed and walked to the inside of the shower.

After a short shower, I covered my lower body with a towel that was hanging in a tube against the wall that surely was put there for me exclusively. Before open the door totally, I glanced to the main room and noticed that no one was around there anymore. I didn't want to walk around the place shirtless. And even more so, because there was two girls around, that just wouldn't be correct.

When I closed the bathroom's door behind me, I immediately rushed towards the guest room with my little pile of used clothes on my hands, and once again suppressed the pain in my legs. I quickly put on the sleeved with undershirt, the chain mail, the pair of fingerless gauntlets, my brown pants and finally, my boots. I scratched my head thoughtfully. Where do I left them now?

I exited the guest room and saw both my sword and shield lying at the side of the stairs. I made a worried frown.

(Hope I didn't intimidated them or nothing with these…Oh well, surely didn't…)

As I eased my look, I put the sword and shield on my back, bringing more uncomfortable weight along with it. I arched my back while sighing deeply. I really didn't like the weight that a shield brings; That´s why I prefer having only my sword along with me. But as Cremia said yesterday, the field can be dangerous and I better be protected as well as I can.

Now, I had my endless pouch and my rupee bag too, so was ready to go. I left the main house of the ranch and glanced to Epona, who was still caged. I approached to her and gently patted her head with my arm trough the bars. Finding Epona lightened my mood a lot. If I found her, then I can find that sword and get back home as easily? I wondered what happened to the bandits though…

"You kicked their asses, right Epona!" I chuckled.

"Neigh" (Meh, you have no idea…)

_**Epona's Flashback**_

Somewhere, at the southeast of Termina Field…

"You are going to listen to us, stupid horse!" a man short of stature clad in green clothes screamed in front of the altered horse.

"Neigh!" The mare somewhat responded. (Face off someone your size, beanie!)

After painful hours of trying to tame the horse, the bandits were trying another technique to submit the mare. The other bandit that was too, struggling, was just at the rear side of the mare, waiting for the exact moment to jump on her take on the reins of the situation. The mare was smart tough, she knew that someone was behind her; and kicked the bandit hard with her hooves, making him fell backwards. As the bandit lay in the floor in pain, the shorter bandit got rammed by the mare that was making her escape to the unknown.

_**End of flashback.**_

I looked around the place and saw no one. I bring my hand to my chin.

(Now where are Cremia and Romani? Maybe inside that building right next to the house…)

I went inside of said building, and my thoughts were right, there were the redheaded sisters, both of them petting a cow. This was the stable I could tell, because of presence of many cows and one single, horse with brown mane.

When I got inside of the stable, the sisters noticed me, and turned to me.

"You are leaving already Alex?" Romani started, letting aside cow she was petting.

"Oh" Cremia stood up. "Epona's still caged?" I nodded. She took a set of keys from a nearby table and nodded towards me. "Let's go free her" I gave her a warm smile and she sent it back to me.

We left the stable with Romani closely following us. She was somewhat anxious to see Epona free too. When Cremia freed Epona from her enclosure, she immediately ran towards me cheerfully. And I, cheerfully too, patted her neck the usual way I always did. In that moment I felt relieved. Epona was the only thing I had since I got lost in Termina. My determination to finding her was the only thing that prevented me from going insane, and now that I'm with her again, a big weight wore off from my back.

While I was petting my mare, both Cremia and Romani couldn't hold back a smile. "Awww how cute" The younger sister said.

"Well… I better get going…" I mounted on top of Epona took her reins. I turned back at the sisters. "I don't know how to thank you both for your hospitality and for take care of Epona" I said with a thankfully smile.

"Oh, don't worry, it was a pleasure" Cremia said. "Come back and tell us more about your adventures!" Romani said. Cremia put her hand on Romani's shoulder with a smile, and turned back at me.

"Be sure to visit us again sometime" At that time, our eyes met again, and I could tell that she was totally sincere. But as every time that our eyes met, I blushed and looked away. She noted that, and casually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear looking away too.

"I'll sure stop by sometime. See ya later! EA!" I quickly waved them goodbye and gestured Epona to leave.

They waved too in return. "Bye!" "Bye Alex!" I heard as their voices faded in the distance.

I couldn't help but notice the similarities with this ranch with my home ranch. It somehow got that feeling of welcoming and peace that I enjoyed so much back at home. And even, I felt somewhat in home in this ranch like atmosphere, thing that noticed when I first stepped in the ranch. Those thoughts of having my home back just fueled further my desire to get back to my home. Now with Epona at my side nothing can get on my way. Let's get that Four Sword!

_**(Background: Termina Field Theme)**_

"Faster Epona! To the east!" I yelled excitedly, my eyes emanated strong determination.

"Neigh!" (Hang on! I'm a little rusty! sheeesh)

We quickly passed through Milk Road and now we were at the massive extent of land known as Termina Field.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every monster in our way met the terrible fate to encounter us as Epona rambled them with such ease that, none of them could slow our fast pace towards the canyon at the east. Chu-chus just melted away like jellies; Deku Babas were cut in two as we made our way. But the bombchus were another thing. When I first glanced one at the outsides of the eastern gate of Clock Town, I turned Epona trying to not collide with it, but Epona continued her own way and the bombchu simply exploded like nothing at the contact with Epona's feet.

I glanced back at the explosion. "Wow Epona! You kick ass!"

Epona snorted vainly. (Don't state the obvious…)

Every bombchu that got in our way exploded and Epona didn't even flinch at the explosions. She was too, excited to go outside for quite a long time.

Then, not too far I glanced at my worst enemy yet: the metallic fence.

"Okay Epona, you know what to do!"

Epona ran faster, and the air collided with us at the opposite direction we were running, unleashing my hair wildly. The moment of truth came, and Epona jumped up the fence with ease and continued running. I stared back at the fence and showed it my tongue mockingly. I glanced back forward, and saw another fence exactly the same as before. Not a problem. I got a better grip on the reins and prepared for the jump.

"Wooohoo!" I yelled excitedly while jumping the fence.

With no more annoying obstacles around, the way split in two. I stopped Epona and got out my general map of Termina and searched the place where I was.

"Mmm… here…"

The way forward up the hill lead deeper into the canyon and to some place called Stone Tower. But the way at my left leaded towards my destination: Ikana Graveyard. I directed Epona towards the left way, until a small cliff prevent me from going with Epona any further.

"Sorry, just wait here and don't leave, okay?"

"Neigh" (are you waiting for an answer? What can I say to you I'm a horse!)

"Glad that you understand! Just stay here just a second"

"Neigh" (Whatever, I'll kill some bombchus if ya' don't mind…)

I left Epona in the part where the canyon split, climbed the small hill I was surrounded by various tombstones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ikana Graveyard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_**(Background: Conker's Bad Fur Day: Windy Graveyard)**_

I never liked the graveyards. There's always this ominous mood and disturbing silence on any graveyard you go with no exceptions.

I got out my map again and noticed that I was very close to the appointed place on the map marked with a circle. "Ok… just a little forward…"

I walked through the dirt way around the tombstones. The place was getting on my nerves; and more so, when **I heard a fading children's laugher somewhere around**. The place was disturbing enough and now I'm hearing things? I fastened my walking pace until there was no more tombstones around the dirt way and glanced at a bridge-like structure. I walked forward and got in front of a door and politely knocked the door. Above the door was two big scythes decoration, but to me it seemed more like a death trap if those things fall down.

When I was inspecting those scythes, someone opened the door and I glanced down. I got a little surprised with the aspect of the person. It was a short middle aged bald man with a seriously spooky face and sunken eyes, a big hump and wearing a dark brown sleeveless tunic.

"What is it? Don't you know? I don't do burials this day of the week" The man with the pallid face said with a rather bored face.

So he must be the grave keeper… "Uh… I didn't come here for a funeral"

"You are not?" He looked me up and down inspecting me. He took a quick glance to my sword, got somewhat excited. "Then… there's a chance that you may be a treasure hunter?"

I put my hand on my chin. "Well, you bet I am!"

"And there's any chance that you've got a bomb in your possession?"

"Well, yeah, think I have one…"

Now he looked genuinely happy. "Perfect! Just what I needed!" We clasped our hands together in a friendly salute. "My name is Dampé the Gravekeeper! My face may be scary, but I'm not a bad guy…"

And, as far I can tell, he was saying the truth; his eyes didn't exude any kind of malice, thing that made me ease my look sharply. "Alex Lon's the name" I replied with a friendly smile.

"Come inside please…" I nodded and followed him inside his house, which was only a room with a bed covering most of the leftmost corner, a half-filled bookcase and even a little sink totally out of context. He directed me to go down a staircase.

"You better have some source of light at hand, down there is really obscure" He got out a lantern filled with oil that illuminated all the room.

"What's down there?" I exclaimed as I lit my own half-filled oil lantern that I brought days before at Clock Town that I used to read books at my room at nights. I buckled it on my belt to not carry it around.

He began to walk downstairs and I had to follow him. "Down there's a cavern that belongs to the family members of the king of Ikana's Castle, a place that lies beyond the mountains. The place is full of treasures! I had found lots of rupees, rare and valuable vessels and even an empty bottle! Isn't that neat?"

Just like that creepy mask salesman said, the sword was hidden away along with other treasures of the royal family of Ikana, so everything matches, I'm actually going the right way for the Sword. But something else peek my curiosity.

"And why do you need bombs?"

"Wait and see it with your own eyes…"

After that non-answer, we got to the end of the downstairs and got in big and open place down the graveyard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beneath the Graveyard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cavern was frightening and cold to say the least. I couldn't see anything 10 feet further away. And the only source of light was our lanterns. When I turned back at Dampé, he put on a really weird looking cap on his head. This cap had really sharp spikes around it pointing upwards. "Watch out for your shadow, I'm dead serious" he said.

I raised an eyebrow at his statement distrustfully, but nodded and kept following him. We descended another shorter stairs and walked around an even more open place. And all of the sudden I heard the air being cut somewhere. I looked at both sides and saw nothing out of the ordinary that my limited vision could perceive; just darkness. But I still heard that something was coming towards me at blazing speeds. Then, the words of Dampé came to my mind: Watch out for you shadow…

I looked at my feet and glanced a big shadow below me. It was not an ordinary shadow and it wasn't mine either; it kept growing bigger and bigger at each second that passed… Then the realization came to my mind: something or someone was falling towards me.

"MOVE!" Dampé shouted.

I quickly jumped sideways and a strange monster fell on the place where I was standing just a second ago. The creature was nothing more than a disembodied zombiefied hand of big proportions.

"It's a Wallmaster! Quick! Slash it before it goes back to the ceiling!"

I didn't need him to say it. I unsheathed my sword and slashed the creature. But it just made it a little cut and as prompted itself up the ceiling as fast as it fell. I looked up, waiting for it to fall again.

"It won't show up if you keep staring up!" Dampé said. Now I get why he has that cap on.

Instead of looking up, I glanced to my feet again and carefully watched my shadow again. It was growing bigger again. I got a better grip on my sword and waited for the exact moment of action.

(There… there… I got it!)

I grabbed the sword with both hands and made an upwards thrust. The creature got impaled in the sword and died fast, disappearing in blue smoke. When the blue smoke faded, it tossed away three red rupees.

"Nice work! The bastard stole those rupees from me ages ago! You can keep them if ye like for your good deed"

I nodded and picked the rupees to put them inside of my rupee bag.

"Now, keep follow me"

I listened to him and followed his steps until we got in front of a strange wall.

"This is it" He knocked the wall with his hand and heard a hollow sound from the wall. "I'm sure that something is behind this wall, maybe even treasures! I live far from town so I can't get bombs easily, but now that you are here I want you to use a bomb in this wall if you don't mind"

"I don't mind at all"

I inspected the wall closely, and unbuckled the lantern off from my belt and held it with my right hand in front of the wall. There were some big inscriptions on it wrote in Terminian. It seemed really worn, but managed to read it clearly.

**¨Only the bearer of the golden power may be worthy to touch the hilt of the elemental sword¨ **it read.

Below of those inscriptions was carved the goddesses of Hyrule, the Triforce. I rose an eyebrow at the display of some connection between this place and my homeland, but I may be wrong and it could not be the same emblem. As Dampé did earlier, I knocked the wall with my left hand and the same hollow sound echoed. But to my surprise, when I touched the wall to knock it, something lit on the back of my left hand under the glove; light was definitively coming from it and the emblem of the wall shined with the same intensity. It somehow reacted to my birthmark.

Without thinking twice, I pressed the palm of my hand against the emblem on the wall and reacted more intensively. My birthmark reacted too in a similar way, but it hurt me like even more than when I had nightmares or whenever I got angry. The light grew and consumed the entire hollow wall. I twitched in pain. The light coming from my birthmark indeed hurt me like a fiery burn.

When the light subsided, the wall disappeared revealing a not so dark way ahead. I stared at my hand in disbelief and saw that the glove was all burned in place where my mark is, marking it with black burn leather. My hand trembled so I shook it to shake off the pain and the heat.

"Well, hehe, the road is not blocked anymore, so let's go Dampé… uh? Dampé?" I looked at every way with my lantern on hand. "Where did he go?"

_**(Underneath Dampé's bed)**_

"I-I haven't s-s-seen a-anything and k-know anything…"

_**(Back to the underneath of the Graveyard)**_

I made a confused face. "He… left?... Oh well! More treasures for me!" I contented myself and walked forward to the revealed place.

After a short tunnel I got to a big room fully illuminated with a big and intense ray of light that came from a crack in the high ceiling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chamber of the Four Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room was half illuminated by the ray of light. It was a big place with the design of a palace with weird patterns on the walls and paintings on the floor that pointed exactly at the center of the room, where a big statue lied. The statue was dressed in a dark metallic armor from head to toe, with a knight helmet on it head and finally, a big ass sword that was holding with his hands while cleaved at the ground and a big shield on its left hand.

I walked further to examine the statue, but when I got close enough, the statue raised its helmet in a way I could say that it stared at me. I heard a ghostly voice coming from the statue.

"I'm the protector of the sacred blade, keeper of the light"

Then I understood that it wasn't a statue, but a huge armored knight: a Darknut as we, the swordsmen, call these creatures. I friendly waved my hand to him. "Why, hello there! How ya doin'?"

The Darknut didn't listen and continued its speech. "Young swordsman, show me your might and I will see if you are worthy to brandish the golden blade!" He grabbed his large sword from the floor and got in battle position.

I frowned defiantly. "Fine. If that's what you want…" I unsheathed my sword and my shield and got in battle position too. My heart skipped for the thrill of battle.

We stared at each other waiting for the other to make the first move. Ten seconds passed, so I made the first move by running at him.

_**(Background: Zelda Twilight Princess Track: Mini Boss Battle)**_

I got in front of him and slashed him twice, attack which he blocked with its big sturdy shield that covered the half of its frontal body. The movement didn't make him even flinch a little. It then punched me with its shield, and made me take two steps backward, tearing momentarily my defense, opportunity he took to make a horizontal slash which I deflected with my shield in a split of second, but the impact of its long sword against my shield made me fell to the floor. While I was recovering, he threw a vertical slash to the floor towards me. I quickly rolled in the floor away from the impact. The sword hit the floor so hard that it got impaled deep in the floor, making a little quake.

I stood up and realized that this guy is serious. He wants to kill me and won't take second thoughts while doing it. While he was trying to get its sword out of the floor, I attacked him at his right side where he was not covered by its shield. The slashes were effective, they tear apart the armor on its right shoulder and the piece of armor fell to the floor. I tried to continue with another pair of slashes, but he managed to get its sword off from the ground and wasted no time in throwing a horizontal slash towards me. But our movements were performed at the same time, and our swords clashed together sending a noisy metallic echo across the whole room.

Now this was a battle of force. We were pulling our sword against the other one's sword. I frowned to convoke more physical strength from my arms, but the Darknut seemed to have no problem to face my strength; he wasn't even trying. I struggled for a half a minute until he finally released some strength and made me lose the force duel and slashed the right side of my torso with its big sword.

I took some steps back to resist the pain of the hit. I sighed, contained the pain and deefiantly grinned. Now this is what I call a sword fight! Quite a big time passed since I got to a real fight, and now I'm excited to feel the thrill and adrenaline of battling someone.

(Well… I might as well get serious too…)

I walked away from him the enough to complete my plan. As I thought, he was pretty darn slow. I raised my sword in front of me and started gathering magic power from inside of my body. Magic power was an ability granted to a short amount of people from the place of the Great Fairy at the side of Hyrule Castle. When I got to certain age, my parents got me there and the Great Fairy granted me the magic power in permission of the king of Hyrule. The Royal Family of Hyrule always was good with us, the Lon family for reasons unknown to me. I practiced with the magic power just a few times and haven't mastered yet at all extent.

The Darknut was approaching slowly. I released the magic power into the blade of my sword, now shining in dim green flames that flowed from my hands. I threw a quick slash to the air, leaving a trail of green magic in the air. I stared at the blade for some seconds and got to battle position again. "I'll show you what I'm made of!"

I ran towards the Darknut who wasn't far away, and our blades meet again in an tremendous clash of metal.

This time I was the one who wasn't even trying. The magic power gave me extra strength and the sword was now sharper and harder than before. "Aaaarrgghh!" I yelled and won the strength match this time.

slashing the armor of the Darknut repetitively until only half of its armor covered its body. When he recovered from the continual slashes, he covered himself with its shield, which was quickly thrown away by a vertical slash from my part. He had no shield, so he started deflecting my slashes with its large sword, which was broken in two thanks to the magic boost in my blade.

The adrenaline ran fiercely through my veins, and clouded a little my way of acting. My battle instincts has taken over my body. I missed this sensation.

With no more to defend himself, he received all the hits, making the rest of its armor fell to the ground. Now he got no armor whatsoever. Time to finish him off!

I performed our family's signature move: the spin attack. I grabbed the hilt of my blade firmly and held it in front of me, and made two spins around myself, slashing it twice on the chest with tremendous force; one to make him flinch, and another one to make him fell to the ground. It go just as planned; the Darknut laid in the floor panting and without armor. I took my chance, and jumped on top him and cleaved my sword into his chest, finish him off with an Ending Blow as my grandpa taught me. I jumped to his side, removing the sword off from its chest. My battle frown faded into a relieved smile. The green flames faded too, away from my blade and I unsheathed my sword and got my shield on my back. I cracked my knuckles. "Good fight!"

When my adrenaline wore off, the pain came to the affected part at the side of my torso. I patted it slightly and knew that there was no major damage thanks to the chain mail. I arched my back.

"And now…where's my prize?"

I glanced to the center of the room and there it was: a sword cleaved into a pedestal. I walked towards it. The pedestal where it was cleaved had the emblem of the royal family of Ikana, present too in the wall that disappeared in the light. The sword was bathed by the light coming from the crack on the ceiling, letting me inspecting it with detail. The hilt was golden orange with a colorless jewel attached at the end of the hilt. The blade was in bad state to say the least; it was all rusty and was just slightly larger than my own sword. I got in front of it and put my hands around the hilt, and pulled it out of the pedestal with little amount of effort. I raised it upwards.

_**(Zelda: The Wind Waker Music – Master Sword)**_

This is it. This gotta be it. The Four Sword. The ages have taken a serious toll on it though… better not use it yet... I want to see what that mask salesman says about this. I inspected closely. This thing will get me back to my home?

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**i seriously enjoyed writing the fight. In personal, this is my favorite chapter i've written. It showed us the badass side of Alex huh?**

**/Review Question/ Did you like the battle?**

**Believe me, you have seen nothing yet...**

**-Matt **


	9. Ch9: One step forward, four steps back

**Well, what do you know? Here's another chapter! Just go ahead and read it and i'll explain further in the end's author notes.**

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In between the multitude, there was I, walking towards the Clock Tower thoughtfully. I stared to the ground while walking. I was going to the Clock Tower to get a deal done. The deal consisted in getting an ancient sword to that creepy mask salesman. Now, with the sword in my possession, everything pointed that my days in Termina were just about to end by every step I made.

It seemed so simple, just give him the sword and he'll take me back home. But a part of my head told me that it couldn't be that simple…

The large wooden doors of the Clock Tower were open once again by me. There was he, the Happy Mask Salesman just standing there in the middle of the room like he was waiting anxiously for my arrival.

"Oh… you… Were you able to find the Four Sword in the graveyard?" He calmly said with is characteristic grin wide on his face.

I nodded firmly.

As soon as I ended my action, he grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me repetitively. "Oh! Oh! Ohhh!" He looked truly amused. "You got it! You got it! You got it! You got it?" He was making uproar.

"Yeh Yeh, I got it!" I nearly shouted and took his arms off from my shoulders.

He calmed a little bit, but his unnerving smile was bigger than never before. He extended his hand in front of me. "Then please, give it to me…"

I got out my endless pouch and got the so called Four Sword out from it and extended my hand in front of him showing it. The sword was in a bad state because of the passing of time. The blade was rusty and fragile, and its hilt lacked brightness of the gold that was made of.

When he saw its bad state, he shot opened his eyes and practically snatched it from my hands. He stared at it some moments in disbelief. "No… this cannot be…"

What? Was he expecting it to be all shiny and stuff?

_**(Background: Happy Mask Salesman Theme)**_

He suddenly burst into a nervous wreck, putting his both hands on his head, tossing the sword into the floor. "NO, NO NO NO! It's useless now!"

"Hey! Calm down!"

"Calm down? Don't you get it? The power of light has left the sword! Now something terrible will happen!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The seal will be broken and the **evil one** will arise!" He shouted in my face.

"Okay, calm down and tell me what's the matter with the sword" I confusedly frowned.

He exhaled deeply and calmed down, then grabbed the Four Sword from the floor. "The sword was like this when you found it?..."

"Yeah, I found it in that same state. What do you mean that the power of light has left the sword?"

"The Light Power is what grants the sword the power to repel evil… but now, lacks it… I never thought that that the pass of the time on the sword could end up doing such thing… now is useless for my purposes…"

I gaped. I didn't cared about his purposes with it, but I did care about my own. "But you'll still help me get back home won't you?"

He looked at me and shook his head disappointed. "I'm afraid that cannot" My eyes widened and suddenly felt a crude cold pass through my feet and my forehead; the feeling you get when something bad has gotten bigger and serious to unimaginable extents. "The power of light also granted it the power to travel between worlds. I'm afraid that our goals are not destined to be accomplished…"

Destiny? Bullshit! There has to be a way… I put a hand on my chin and wondered for outer possibilities and something came up. "There's any way to restore the power of light to the sword?" I crossed my hands in front of my chest.

He threw a quick glance at me only to continue to stare back at the Four Sword with an eyebrow raised. "Good point… "He then looked at the end of the hilt of the sword, where a transparent and colorless circular crystal was. He brought it upon his eye and looked at me trough it. I just stared at him confused. What's he doing?

"Now that I think about it, yes, there may be a solution…" He then grinned at my face sighting through the sword's crystal in a way that showed that an idea has popped inside of his head. "If we want to restore the power of light to the sword, we'll have to give what granted it the power of light in first place…"

"And what is that?"

"The elements." He handed me the sword again, and I put it inside of my endless pouch again.

I raised an eyebrow curiously. "Explain yourself."

"The elements are the physical embodiments of the four natural elements: **Earth**,** Wind**,** Water** and **Fire **on pure, crystalline form. Because of them, the sword was commonly called the Elemental Sword or Four Sword because those four elements were infused on it…"

""Were"…so the power of light is absent because the elements have left the sword, am I right?"

"I'm glad that you are getting my point. I have another request to you…"

I knew where he was getting at…

"What."

"You see… the elements are scattered around Termina, each of them in certain compass direction; The **Earth element** is at the snowy northern mountains, the **Wind element **is somewhere at the southern swamp. The **Water element** is somewhere hidden within a temple far away from the western shore. And finally, the **Fire element **is occult inside of a big tower at the dry canyon of the east."

"To simplify the things; you want me to get these elements?" I asked with my arms still crossed around my chest.

"I see that you are smarter than you seem…Do you accept my request?"

I brought my hand upon my chin and thought. This would be rather difficult and may take a lot of time… but what troubles me more than anything is that I put my life at such risk… getting the sword was hard enough…

"Why can't you go and get them?" I asked, not moving my hand from its place on my chin.

"Believe me or not, I tried to get the sword by myself. The gravekeeper was stubborn and didn't let me get underneath the graveyard. That's why I hired a wallmaster"

I raised a dark eyebrow confused. (He-hired that thing?)

"The wallmaster held the gravekeeper enough time to let me investigate the underneath cavern, but my way was blocked by a wall"

"Why didn't you use bombs?"

"That passed through my mind, but instead…" He shot open his right eye which was glowing in a blood-red color that sent a chill upon my back. "I used the eyes of truth to peek whatever was behind the wall…" He closed his eye again. "And someone-something was guarding the place…"

"A Darknut." I finished his sentence.

"Exactly. Now, it seems that you were capable to match the undead knight and beat him, am I right?"

I nodded.

"I'm no warrior, so I cannot take such task by myself. But now, you are here, courageous Alex, and our goals share the same methods to be done…"

I looked at the ground with a frown and closed my eyes. "Restore the light power to the Four Sword…" I sighed.

"So, I'm going to ask you again… Do you accept my request?"

I gritted my teeth when I knew that there was no other way around. "Ok"

"I'm glad that we gotten to terms. Hand me your map please."

Without hesitation, I handed him my general map of Termina from my endless pouch. He extended it around, and marked certain places with a red marker. Four circles in each cardinal point, each of them far away from each others. When I looked at the map I suddenly felt like is going to take an eternity to get the four elements. I sighed deeply when I was certain that my home was still far away from my reach, but still was there at the end of the way, which was the only thing that was making me accept this journey.

He handed me the map again and I put it back into my endless pouch.

"Ho, ho, ho! Is it not a simple task?"

"Well, it's not actually,"

"Uh, I almost forgot—"He brought his hand to his huge back pack on its back. "-Here" He threw something to me.

As a reflex, I caught it and the item flew above my hands. And I went somewhat excited to see the new item.

_**(The Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hourglass OST 63 – Bad Treasure Fanfare.)**_

My excited grin fell and expressed disappointed when I noticed that the object he threw was nothing more and nothing less than a simple gray bag. It was somewhat heavy, so I opened it but saw that nothing was inside of it.

I looked at him confused. "Umm… what's this now?"

"It's a Mythril bag. Mythril is an insulator material very rare to find. The elements on pure form are very unstable. The bag shall isolate them. You better don't screw around with the elements like they were toys; once you got one, put it immediately inside of the bag."

I put the mythril bag inside of my endless pouch. "Hmm, simple enough!"

I turned to leave the Clock Tower, but the salesman continued talking to me. "-One last thing" I turned to face him again. His face went serious. "You better get the elements as quickly as possible."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Not only for your reasons, but we need the Four Sword being reformed again for the well being of Termina…"

I raised the same eyebrow to the skies. "Huh?"

"… The passing of time is the slowest yet, the securest weapon to put an end to someone's life…"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"…Time doesn't flow the same way in Termina than it does in Hyrule, Alex…just get the elements as quickly as you can."

I tried to find a question that would get me a response to all the confusing thoughts on my head, and found one that may answer most of my doubts. "Why do you want the sword so badly?"

He giggled on an unnerving way and brought his wide grin on his face again. "I'll answer that question once you get me an element, the order doesn't matter, Ho, ho, ho!"

My eyebrow returned to its original place and gave him an annoyed face. "Whatever…" I turned back towards the exit, walked towards it and left the inside of the Clock Tower.

When the wooden doors closed behind me, I grabbed my hair in frustration.

(Damn! I just want to get back home! Is that too much to ask?)

Complete a task just to begin with another more difficult task was something that really bothered me. So many questions without answer; Why he wants the sword? Why I have to get the elements quickly? The time flows differently on Termina than it does in Hyrule? Who's the **evil one**? What seal?

So many thoughts on my head made me a little dizzy. I put my hand on my forehead.

(I just need a rest to ease myself… yeah, that should do…)

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**SHORTEST CHAPTAHH EVAAHH!**

**i know that this one is really short compared with other chapters, but really got to its point clearly. **

**As you've seen, here is where the main plot of the story unfolds, but that's not all of it, no...**

**The mask salesman is a closed book with uncountable secrets. Damn, i really like to write the dialogues between him and Alex because of the suspense and the mystery that surrounds them. Why does he want the Four Sword? that is something that we all get to know eventually; something serious is behind all of this. Something BAD. **

**Please review! *_***

**-Matt**


	10. Ch10: First time experience

**After a two month hiatus, I'm back! This one is kinda like a crack-fic. Yeah, kinda... just start reading now.**

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stock Pot Inn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With my eyes still closed, a piercing and recurring sound has been repeating itself every fifteen seconds. Oh… there's again…

"Somebody please shut that sink up…" I muttered to anyone in particular.

There was it again, the sound of another drop of water splashing on the sink. With a loud morning groan, I crawled towards the bathroom without opening my eyes. Now in front of the sink, I sent my hand to search for the tap, but just ended in an encounter with toothpaste tube. I gave up and opened my eyes which, were immediately closed again by the piercing sound of another drop of water. I grabbed my forehead and with the other hand, turned the tap close.

I rested my elbows at the sides of the sink grabbing my hair while staring at my reflect in the mirror and realized:

"A hangover? Seriously? Man…" I whispered to myself with half-closed eyes.

In personal experience, this was my first hangover and it felt like crap.

"But how?-I only drank milk yesterday—I think…"

This was one of the two most important matters that my father explained to me with a serious face in the past. One being about never drink too much, and another—uh… something about never drop the soap in prison or something like that…

Ok, let's recap, what happened yesterday? The memory isn't my forte, but this time was sharply difficult to get my neurons to work. I need to cool them down…

I took off all my clothes and crawled again to the shower and let my head being showered by the cold water. I stood like that a couple of minutes letting the water splash my face until something finally came up.

_**(Flashback)**_

After a long refreshing sleep, I found myself sitting at the bar table of the Milk Bar. It was full of its regular costumers. Now I was there as a simple client. I stared at the polished bar while resting my elbows on the bar table grabbing my head. I was uneasy and somewhat depressed. I just find out that my stay on Termina is going to take long time. But worse yet, I had to travel all along the land to get these elements or something. It was a grueling task yes, but there's no other way around if I want to really get back home.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and frowned thoughtfully.

(I still don't understand why he wants to me to get the elements as quickly as I can. But what he meant by saying that time doesn't flow the same in Termina as it does in Hyrule?…)

"Oh, look who's there!"

A low pitched and well known voice interrupted my thoughts; Mr. Barten.

"Al! how've ya been, kid?" Mr. Barten said behind the counter.

"Hey. I've been good…" I lied, but my depressed face uncovered the lie.

"You're a terrible liar. What happened?"

I rolled my eyes in defeat and decided to tell him.

"Ok, ok… this is the thing…"

I told him everything that happened to me since I got outside of Clock Town find the (old) Four Sword in between pauses of thirty seconds because of people demanding his service constantly. He understood my depression when I got to the part of collecting the elements.

"And, well, that is all there is to it"

"Uh, come on. Aren't you at least a little relieved because you found your horse?" He exclaimed while polishing a empty glass.

"Of course I am, but still… I thought that I could get home after giving him the stupid sword; I was hopeful, but I knew at the same time that it couldn't be that easy. And now, I can't help but feel off because my staying in here has extended more than I imagined…" I said while resting my arms in the counter.

_**(End of flashback.)**_

(So that what happened yesterday…)

But that still doesn't explain why I'm in a hangover. I mean, you can't get drunk because of milk can you?

(No, I've drunk milk of the Milk Bar before and never-ever got slightly drunk.)

I dressed in my regular adventurer outfit and when I finished doing so, after putting my boots on, glanced at an irregular sight of an empty bottle in the desk at the side of the bed. I got curious and grabbed the bottle and saw its purple label with golden letters. My eyes widened.

(Could it be…)

_**(Flashback)**_

"Well, it appears that your quest has only begun then." Mr. Barten said.

I didn't respond, just continued giving him a sad face while seeing the polished bar table.

"Oh, don't be like that. Hey! I know what can cheer ya' up!" He went towards the large containers at the right side of the bar and came back with a medium sized glass full of a white-purple liquid.

"I know that I haven't let ya drink this one, but I think that you had already earned the right to drink it…"

I raised an eyebrow and knew what he meant.

"Chateau?"

"Yeh! This one's free and just for ya!"

"Hey Barten! Another round here please!" another client across the bar claimed for Mr. Barten's attention.

"Sorry, I'll be back in a minute" He went off to serve his other clients, leaving me with the glass of Chateau Romani in front of me.

I grabbed the glass and smelt its contents. It smelt rather sweetly than the other types of milk that the bar had.

(Just a little sip…)

Unfortunately, for me, a little sip equaled to a big gulp that left the glass with half of its contents.

At the time when the chateau entered in contact with my mouth, it tasted rather sweet without letting aside its milk flavor. But tasted more than sweet milk, it had something strange that made my throat slightly burn and when swallowed it, I felt strange smog spreading on my head, like warming it.

The flavor was strange to say the least, but I wanted to feel that warmth on my head again and drank what left in the glass. This time it didn't felt the same in my head, but started to like a lot the flavor of the vintage milk.

(How they can do this to the milk? How can they make it so sweet like this?)

The uproar of the chit-chats of the clients all around the bar seemed to calm down just a little bit. I turned to see all the clients, who were exactly the same, making their usual bar atmosphere. But the strange thing was that when turned my head, my sight was a little blur. I grabbed my forehead.

(Okay, now-this-is weird…)

_**(Background: Conker's Bad Fur Day Music: Birdy, Erm Beardy)**_

"Hey! Look! It's Alex!" Someone said behind me.

"Yeh! It's him!" I turned. They were Guru-Guru and the twin jugglers, common clients.

"Heeey! How ya' doin' pal?" The red clothed juggler said.

I exhaled air to respond, but was interrupted by Guru-Guru putting a hand in front of my mouth. "Don't say a thing! I'll invite you a round of Chateau!"

With no reason to say no, I accepted and drank along with them. I talked them about my adventure, but trailed off very often. We drank and drank Chateau all the night. The effects of the beverage took a huge toll on my head. The blur intensified every time I moved my eyes just slightly, I heard my thoughts more often than the real world. I was thinking strange and ridiculous things and chuckled every ten seconds. I couldn't help squinting. My head tilted to the sides slowly, revealing my lack of concentration. I spoke slowly and dumbly.

The purple headed man known as Kafei, came to the bar and sat in the chair at my side, obviously not caring who was sitting at the sides, just ordered a bottle of, uhh… not quite sure, a bottle of simple Romani milk I think. Because of a occasional stare to see who was, he acted like the spoiled kid that he were.

"Hey, you! You shouldn't be working or something else than staring at me with that stupid face of yours?" He spoke with pure vanity on his tone.

Luckily for me, I was so off at the moment that I didn't took that as an offence. No… I actually didn't pay attention to what he said. "Excuse me?" I replied.

He gave me a discontented glare. Before I could realize his annoyed face, I saw that his head was growing big.

His head twisted off in clock-wise direction while growing even bigger and getting purple.

Before it could do a complete turn, it spun in counter clock-wise direction until it got so big and purple and flew away, leaving a headless Kafei holding a glass of milk. It was so absurd that I burst on laugher.

And just then, between my laughs, the conscious and rational part of my mind told me that I was completely drunk, but I didn't care and let the stupid and happy side take over. For the first time in my life, I was drunk.

Seeing the world with the lucidity of a 90 year old man relaxed me for some time, throwing aside all the problems I was facing.

_**(End of flashback.)**_

"Chateau Romani" I spoke the name of the beverage marked on the label of the empty bottle. "Now I can die in peace knowing how it tastes…"

always had forbidden me from drink it, and now, I know why: It was an alcoholic beverage. He said that only adults were allowed to drink it because of the responsibility that comes with its consume and repercussions; get drunk being one of them. I chuckled.

(Tee hee… if my parents knew this…)

Oops, sore spot.

I stopped chuckling immediately when my parents came to my mind. The smile faded quickly and went serious.

I sighed deeply.

Better get this element crap done quickly as possible. I'll start my search for the elements today. I'll get the **wind element** first at the swamp of the south. I realized that the best start would be the easier terrain of a swamp, compared to the rougher terrains of canyons and mountains.

(Okaaaaay… I'll just gather my things and get moving)

And so, I did.

I gathered my stuff from the desk at the side of the bed, from the drawers, put my sword on my back, but left my shield in my endless pouch; I really don't like carry too much weight on my back and my sword is more than enough for traveling.

But I didn't find something that was supposed to be on its place in the drawer; my sleeved shirt with blue patterns that I had since I took my very first step on Termina. I raised my eyebrows when I noticed that it wasn't on my endless pouch either. I scratched my head in confusion.

(Where on earth is it?)

I just couldn't afford to lose it. Together with my sword, it's the thing that has most emotional value for obvious reasons; it was made by my grandma herself.

(Come on, think Alex, where you left it…)

I shot open my eyes when remembered where I left my cherished shirt; folded in the drawer next to the bed on Cremia's house at Romani Ranch. I facepalmed.

(Idiot! Why did I even folded it!?)

I arched my back. (Hmm… just a little setback, no problem at all)

I don't mind make a stop at the ranch, that place relaxes me. To be honest, I'd spend most of my time in there rather than this Inn. But it would feel strange to ask Cremia if could live in there. She likely may say yes, but nonetheless, I'd feel like a dead weight in there and make her life harder than it is now. I know well how hard can be to take care of a ranch, but just two persons? I'd like help them somehow if I could…

…

After going downstairs, I handed the room's key to Anju who, as always, had her baby in a cradle on her left side.

"Leaving again Alex?"

"Yeah. Not that I like it hehe…"

She let out a giggle, which made her hands shake in front of her mouth, making sound with the keys on her hand, which attracted the attention of her baby. He stretched his little arms up, asking to play with the keys.

She noted it and immediately brought a smile to her face "No no no Daniel. Play with these" She grabbed a set of big plastic keys and gave them to her baby, who brought them to his mouth. The key where too big for him to swallow them so there was no problem.

"Aww, so cute isn't it?" I said.

"You bet he is! Oh, by the way, today in the morning, a pretty girl with long blue hair came here asking for you. Umm, her name was, umm May?"

"Mia?"

"Um, yeah! Mia!"

"She asked for me? wha- what did you said to her?"

"What…? (giggle) of course I didn't said that you came drunk last night, you dummy!"

I blushed in embarrassing.

"So you know…"

"Of course I know! I know everything that happens here at the Inn!" Her humble smile faded for the first time I know. "And I mean everything."

I was confused and somewhat scared at her serious stare. "Really?" I had to break the silence.

"Believe me; you shouldn't get nowhere near those twin dancers…"

This was starting to scare me. "I uh… gotta go now"

Suddenly, her always radiant smile came back to my relief. "Be careful out there Alex!" She turned to her baby to play with him.

"Y- yeah, bye!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was confusing.

Anyways, Mia asked for me so I better see her before go to the field.

But first; left hand behind the shoulder…

There it was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knew where to find Mia, in the library at the west part of town. While walking through the people to get to said part of town, aside from all the uproar from the people around, a particular voice caught my attention.

"Are you going somewhere?" I recognized that bitter accent immediately. The Mask Salesman.

I turned. "Hey you… I'm going to west part of town if you don't mind." I crossed my hands in front of my chest.

"Did not I tell you to get the elements as quickly as you could? Don't give me a bad impression of you…" he said without wearing off his usual creepy smile.

"I know! I'm working on it! I was just going see somebody."

"You are not getting my point do you? Did your grandfather teach you to be so selfish like that?"

Those last lines felt cold in my back. "What!?"

"You better don't waste more time, go and search for an element right now, or something really bad will happen to all of us. And I won't make myself responsible for it…" He disappeared again in front of me speechless in the middle of the crowd.

I shook my head back to reality. Was that a threat? What does he know about my grandpa? He won't explain me anything until I get him an element…

I continued my way to west part of town, but not too far I saw the very same mask salesman standing at the gate. He was staring at me without moving. I gaped.

There was another gate leading to west part of town though, so I walked towards it, and there he was standing again, glaring at me with that mischievous grin at the distance.

"What the…" I muttered.

THAT is creepy. He won't let me get anywhere else but outside of town. He's serious about not letting me waste time, Mia will have to wait.

He wasn't in the south gate though, so I got outside to Termina Field.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked at both sides, even though I knew that she wasn't around. Of course, I know her too well to know that she can't stand being still in one place more than five minutes…

I got out my old blue ocarina and played the tune that always makes her come to me. **Epona's Song. **

When I finished playing the song, I heard Epona running to me nearly until she was in front of me in a blink.

"Neigh!" (hmph, you again…)

"Hey, girl. Wait, where's your saddle?" I said obviously not waiting an answer. I knew where she was. She liked Romani Ranch, so I told her that she could go there if I took a while yesterday and, I did took a little while, so I can't blame her for not stay where I left her.

"We are going to the ranch, just a short trip, ok?" I said after petting her.

"Neigh" (I know that you left yer shirt there…it's always the same with you)

I hop on her back. "Come on!" and rode towards Milk Road.

_**(Background: Termina Field)**_

Riding Epona while crushing Chu-Chus and Deku Babas was fun, but we passed through the grassy field... and that smell… the smell that emanated from that rock was impossible to ignore now. I tried to not get too near it, but the smell, oh, that horrible smell of burned plastic was spreading further…

We ran past the grass field quickly and got to Milk Road faster than I thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Road ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We passed swiftly Milk Road in direction to Romani Ranch and, totally lost in my thoughts, ignored everything around while staring frontwards.

(…What does he know about my grandpa…?)

Unbeknownst to me, I was sighted by two, long nosed brothers at the entrance of their ranch.

_(Background:__ Conker's bad fur day music: danger lurks)_

"Hmph! Ye saw dat big brother?" The one wearing blue garments said.

"Yeh, and it seemed most interesting, don't you think little brother?" The one wearing a yellow shirt said in response.

"Barten's worker got the lost horse at Romani Ranch, huh? I told you that if we could talk to the lady, we could have gotten it ourselves!"

"Don't be stupid! We both know that we don't have a good business partnership with Cremia, little brother…"

"Hey! You were the one who started to say that their milk is watered down!"

"But who was the one who suggested watering our own milk? Huh?" He demanded back.

"… Nevermind that…"

"Hey, we can still get the horse, you know…"

"You mean…" Then, the older brother nodded.

"Set the gates."

* * *

**I have the next chapter done by now, but as always, i'll update it next Sunday, so have a little patience is always good :) Next time: Cremia's POV. **


	11. Ch11: Selfless Protector

**Hmm,yeh, over here, you have your next chapter! Well, i actually wanted to upload it the other week, but took too much time to rewrite some mistakes and such, that when i finished, BAM! it's Wednesday already! Trust me, i have my reasons to upload them on Sunday...**

* * *

It started like a normal day, and it'll end up like a normal day I think. A normal day of routine. I was somewhat excited though; this day I'll go to Clock Town to deliver milk as I do every week.

This was my favorite day of the week just because is something different from the other six days of the week. See the people around Clock Town passing was thrilling compared to the loneliness of the ranch.

What am I thinking? I'm not alone, I have Romani at my side. A small family of two is still a family.

A family that has decreased in numbers in a short while, I guess.

I carried the basket full of just cleaned clothes that were still wet and left it on the ground and hanged the clothes in the space between the house and the stable, where they'll get the sun directly.

While hanging cloth after cloth, I grabbed a garment in particular that didn't belong to us; Alex's sleeved shirt. He left it here on his last visit.

I don't blame him though, he was in a hurry. I hope that his search has gone all right.

I extended the shirt and hung it like every other cloth, but this one was interesting. I made a closer look at its shoulders. Like the rest of the shirt, was covered in blue patterns, but its shoulders said something with that very same color. I grabbed it and gave it a closer look.

"Lon?" Both shoulders said.

After that, Epona, who was eating some grass, not too far away, raised her head on alert and sighted to the entrance of the ranch.

I turned to see after hear an almost annoyed snort; Epona ran out of the ranch. I raised an eyebrow.

That mare is special. I can say without hesitation that she is way more intelligent than a regular horse. Her expressions are almost human-like. I'm convinced that she has complete knowledge of the human speech.

I heard the door of the stable open. Romani, with her wooden bow on hand, got out and glanced all over the ranch. "Wha? Where's Epona?" She asked in confusion.

"She just left. Hmm… why do you ask?"

She made a disappointed face. "Oooh… I wanted to try horseback archery with her…"

"What!? You know she's too big for you! You may get hurt!" I continued to hang the clothes.

"But SIS!... what if Alex gives me permission to ride her? Will you let meeee?"

"Uh, don't do the puppy eyes again! That doesn't work on me anymore…"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and grunted in defeat "Now, help me hang the clothes please."

She placed her bow on the ground and pretty much obliged, helped me hang the clothes passing me a garment at once. She giggled when noticed the presence of Alex shirt.

"Tee hee, Alex is funny, don't you think?"

"He's an OK-guy…"

…..

In not many minutes, we hanged all the clothes, (not that we have many clothes anyway…) now the thing is wait for them to dry. Now, that's easy.

"Sister, you think he'll come back soon?" Romani asked.

"I'm sure he will, he won't leave his shirt here." I responded her with a warm smile while staring at Alex's shirt.

Romani gazed in the distance. "Romani wonders where Epona went…"

As if she had called her, not too far away, the sound of hooves was heard. We both glanced at the entrance of the ranch. "Look, Alex is here!" She shouted in amusement.

When he glanced at us, he directed Epona towards us. and jumped off from Epona. "Hi!" He waved while walking towards us.

(This may not be normal day after all) I thought with a slight relief.

"Welcome again Alex!" I waved back. "What brings you here again?" I asked something I already knew, but said it anyway.

He blushed and scratched his head embarrassed. "Well, I a… didn't I…left my shirt in here? I don't find it anywhere and… I thought I may have left it here…"

"You sure did!" Romani said pointing her finger towards his shirt that was now drying itself in the sun.

"Uh… so I did leave it here…am truly sorry for the inconvenience, I'll get it and be going now." He stepped forward to the laundry.

I put my hands in my hips."No no no, can't you see it's still damp?" and stopped him from grabbing his shirt.

He looked at me like a little child trying to excuse itself with its mother. "What? B-but Cremia! I-I need-"

I shook my head in negation. "No buts. You'll have to wait for it to dry."

"How much time is that?"

I looked up, no clouds in the horizon. "Two hours maybe."

He looked down and sighed. "I guess it's okay…"

I could swear that Epona would have chuckled if she could.

Romani ran to him and grabbed his hand playfully. "Alex! Can I ask you something?, pleaseeee?"

"Romani! Don't bother him!" I commanded.

"No, no! it's not a problem at all!" He responded.

Giving me a mocking smile, Romani took Alex by the hand again. "You'll show me to how to ride Epona while shooting arrows?"

He raised a black eyebrow. "Horseback archery? I don't know how to do that! Hey w-wait!" Romani ran off towards Epona, dragging Alex in the process.

I giggled at Romani's playfulness. It's good to see that Romani has someone to play with.

But, to be honest, I wanted to ask Alex if he could help me to get ready the wagon to this day's delivery. But asking a guest to help in the chores seems a little inappropriate.

I saw how Alex helped Romani to get on top of Epona, which made me desire to play with them too.

But then, I looked back at the stable that inside of it had yet, work to be done. I sighed.

"Let's get this done."

…

Ok, now, almost everything is set, only if knew where I left the reins, need em' to foe Jack… think I left them in the house…

I got out of the stable and saw Romani riding Epona with her bow on hand pointing towards one of those ghost shaped balloons that I buy in Clock Town every once in a while. She shot an arrow and effectively exploded the balloon that was far away at the side of the tree in front of the house. I gasped at her accuracy.

"Good one Romani!" Alex shouted, who sat with his legs crossed on the grass in front of the house. "Now go and get the one at the entrance!"

I walked up to him. "Excuse me, Alex." I said with a demanding tone.

"Cremia! Hi!" He smiled.

I frowned at his unconcern. "Don't you think that letting Romani ride Epona is a little too dangerous?"

"That's why I'm checking her from here." His smile didn't wear off after talking; he kept calm and easy as always.

My frown faded when knew he was right, he was checking for her. I had no reason to attack him like that. I looked down. "Sorry…" then, I caught the sight of a pretty blue ocarina on the ground. I raised an eyebrow.

(I've seen that instrument before…)

"Umm… what a cute looking ocarina you got."

He looked at me first, and then glanced at the ocarina. "This old thing? Ha, yeah, it's fun to play it sometimes when bored…" He stared up, where the sun was still high in the skies.

"Can you… play something for me?"

"Why, sure!" He grabbed his ocarina and positioned his fingers on its holes, gently closed his eyes and played it with his breath. I closed my eyes to listen. His fingers danced on the surface of the ocarina.

A high note, then a lower note followed by a note even lower, and repeated in that order three times and finally repeated the two final notes.

The sweet and noble sound of the instrument echoed around the ranch. Epona passed nearby and looked like if she were about to check something, but turned quickly with Romani on her back.

(I've heard that before…)

I opened my eyes. "What a beautiful music you make Alex! You play the ocarina pretty good!"

"Thanks! It takes some time to learn to play this thing, you know." he chuckled flattered.

I couldn't keep my curiosity anymore. "By the way, you know someone named Link?" I asked.

His smile changed into a concerned frown, but quickly changed back into a smile, "The only Link I know is my grandfather."

He looked sincere with no doubt on his words. But his mare, the ocarina, that song, even his face are too much to be a mere coincidence.

"Why do you ask?"

"Err.. Just mere curiosity that's all."

He stood up. "Well, I'll check if my shirt is dry."

I nodded and went to the house.

"There you are." I said after find the reins over the pile of hay at the side of the entrance door. Now I'm all set to go. I left the house with the reins for Jack in hand when glanced at Alex folding his shirt and putting it inside of his strange looking pouch.

(I'd like some company…I might as well ask him…)

"I'm going by wagon to town. Would you like a ride?"

He turned confused. "Huh?" He stared at me some seconds before I broke eye contact in embarrassment.

"Y-you don't have to come if you don't want…" I sheepishly said.

He immediately reacted at the tone of my voice. "I- I'm not going to town, but I'll surely keep you company."

That brightened my mood a little bit, which made me smile. "Thanks!"

"Let's get the wagon out then, shall we?" He amusedly said.

…

I saw that Alex got along well with our chocolate colored horse, Jack. He even let him put the reins and hook him with the wagon. "Good guy!" He petted Jack.

Alex being good at taming horses easily is not a surprise.

He turned to me. "I got an idea. What if we take Epona with us too?"

"Only if you want, of course." I responded.

"Sure thing!"

After make sure all the milk jugs were inside the wagon, we both opened the gates of the stable and got the wagon outside. Romani came towards us still riding on top of Epona. "You are going with her Alex?"

"I'll just make her company" He chuckled.

She pointed at us with her finger, like accusing us for a crime. "You can't fool Romani. You two are going out on a DATE!" She shouted.

We both blushed like tomatoes. "NO!" I shouted.

"Uhhh, sorry-but we are taking Epona with us." Alex said with a wry smile that broke the embarrassing situation.

Romani's grin fell at his words. "Why?"

"If we use two horses we'll do the trip faster and Cremia will return quickly to the ranch."

Romani knew that there was no use arguing, so she got off from Epona with a jump and landed on the ground safely. "Okaaaay, but you'll come back right?"

"Don't worry, I will, and Epona will be here most of the time."

"Cool!" She then sighed wearily. "I'm exhausted! Romani's going to take a nap. Romani wants to see sister in here when she wakes up, alright?"

I got the message very well and nodded. Romani then waved us two goodbyes and went inside the house.

When I turned, Alex had already tied Epona with her saddle and hooked her to the wagon at the right side of Jack. (Dang, he's fast!)

He climbed to the wagon and offered me a hand to get on. "Shall we go?" he said with his hand on the air which I accepted almost immediately.

The carriage moved at a faster pace than never with two horses hooked. I took the reins of the two horses and Alex sat inside the carriage, along with the numerous bottles of milk.

_**(Background: Zelda: Majoras Mask - Cremia's Carriage)**_

"So, how has it been your quest? You found that sword?"

"I did find it, but the sword it's useless as it is now…"

"How's that?"

"To put it simple, it has gotten old, and lost its power, so now I have to get some weird things called elements to make it work again…"

"And now you are after those things… what will happen when you have all of them?"

He took some seconds to answer. "I'll go home."

I don't know if it's a bad habit of mine to always see the bad side of the things; "What will happen if it doesn't work?"

"I'll be stuck here I fear. Now, gathering the elements is my best bet; don't see any other way around it…"

He spoke with true sincerity. He has placed all his bets on this. I really hope that in the future he can go back his home. I can't imagine how lonely he must have felt in the beginning. At least I still have Romani and she's all that matters to me. Losing your parents is one thing, but lose all your family and home must be a big hit that he has endured all along.

"Why did you asked me about someone named Link?"

"Uh…" He got me out of my trance. "It's nothing. I knew someone named Link before and, to be honest, you really look a lot like him…"

"You are not the first person who tells me that… who was Link anywa-" The horses stopped suddenly.

He quickly stood up and I glanced forward. "…The road is blocked…"

And it was. A large metal fence was blocking the other end of Milk Road.

I facepalmed. "Not this again…"

"Who would place that fence in there, blocking the road like that?" Alex asked.

(I might have the slightest idea…)

"We'll have to take a detour."

"Through where?"

"The Gorman Track. Yikes" I directed both Epona and Jack to the passage of the track.

I heard a grunt. "I don't like those guys."

"Me neither. Don't you have a bow?"

"Nope. I know nothing about archery."

We entered the track. An ominous loneliness was in the ambience. I know well what to expect.

"Listen to me, I'll try to get through as fast as I can. Tell me if you see someone coming nearby."

I expected an answer, but heard nothing.

"Alex?" I turned. There he was, but he looked different. His pupils were dilated making them have a total dark color blue.

He stared at nothing in particular until he muttered. "…Someone's watching us."

I needed no other word to get moving the carriage faster in that moment.

A long, seemingly eternal minute of silence broken only by the sound of the carriage against the dirt passed.

Until…

"Bandits!" He shouted.

(Oh dear… why now…)

"How many of em'!?"

"Just two, but we have nothing to keep them away!"

I turned back and saw these two bandits riding on horses with black hoods that covered completely their faces and were chasing us. The two of them had big pitchforks.

"What do they want!?" They were coming nearer and nearer by the second.

"They surely want to steal the milk! Do what you can to keep them away!" I shouted after force the horses to go faster.

Again, he maintained silence but still gaped. He was thinking. I cannot imagine what thoughts were passing through his head on those moments. He stared at Epona with fear.

"I don't think they are after the milk…"

"What!?"

"Let go of Epona's reins!"

I obeyed him. I let go my grip of Epona's reins and just after that, Alex jumped from the wagon, to Epona's back.

_(Background: __Conker's Bad Fur Day Angry Pitchfork Extended)_

"Neigh!" (You are nuts!)

"EA!" He directed Epona to the right so she wouldn't get in the way of the wagon. He got a fierce grip on Epona's saddle with his right hand and unsheathed his sword with his left one.

(Is he crazy!?)

He turned at me while riding Epona at the side of the carriage. "Go as fast as you can!"

"Ok!"

After that, he turned Epona right ways and slowed down to get into the bandits position.

I turned to see what was happening. The bandits now were inches away from the milk bottles, but turned their total attention to Alex, who had lowered his mare's pace to get down where they were.

The bandit at the right turned its attention to Alex and tried to attack him with the pitchfork, but Alex slashed back too and the pitchfork got stuck by its teeth by Alex's sword; Alex just had retract it, and threw a direct slash to the bandit's chest. A grunt of pain was heard and the bandit grabbed its chest, slowing down the fast pace that its horse had until it got out of scene.

Now, the other one immediately threw a stab with its pitchfork directly at Alex which unfortunately hit him right in the stomach. I gasped.

Alex didn't care for the hit; it looked like it didn't hurt him. As he got closer to the bandit to prepare his attack, the bandit threw another stab that hit Alex in the shoulder, but he didn't even cared for blocking it; it didn't hurt him.

"What the heck!?" The hooded bandit cried.

"Chain mail!" He shouted back.

Alex slashed the pitchfork and cut it in half, leaving the bandit holding a simple wooden stick on hand.

"Whaaaaaaa!" The hooded bandits choose the best for him and ran away.

My heart skipped after seeing him dealing with those bandits as easily as he did. He sheathed his sword back. "Slow down! I took care of them already."

I stopped the carriage and let Alex tie Epona again to the carriage and climbed in. "They were after Epona…"

I gasped. "How do you know?"

"They didn't try to break the containers. If they wanted to, one had to battle me and another one would be breaking them. They weren't interested in the milk. They were after Epona." He handed me Epona's reins while still looking back.

"We better get outta here quickly." I replied.

"You stole the words from my mouth."

…...

Finally, after their failed attack, we got out of the Gorman Track and ended in the other side of the gate blocking the path in Milk Road.

I sighed in relief. "Phew. You were pretty good out there!"

I turned and saw Alex still staring back at the road, jealously checking with a frown.

Didn't he hear?"Alex?"

"Uh?" He was still cautious and thoughtful.

"They are gone already, don't worry."

"They might show up again." He hasn't turned to me yet. "I'll compain you back to the ranch to make sure you'll be okay."

I slightly blushed at his display of concern for me. "That isn't necessary…"

He turned and I saw his big and determined azure eyes. "It is." He completed, not expecting a no for an answer.

I couldn't argue with him. It's incredible how he changes when he fights. A second personality rises upon him when the situation requires it. Has he always been that impulsive?

The constant rumble of the carriage stopped when we reached the grassy southwest of Termina Field to my relief.

"Let's just forget that." He eased his look after a sigh. "Tell me more about this—Link…"

* * *

**No more delays, next chapter will be up next Sunday, i promise. Next stop: Alex's POV of course.**


	12. Ch12: Unanswered Questions

**Well, here is! As promised! It is not as long as the others though...**

* * *

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Is it something wrong?"

"Don't you smell something funny around?"

"Umm, no… why?"

I insisted her that we shouldn't have passed through the grassy field…

"Uh... nothing…" How come she can't smell that horrible odor?

I turned back at the weird shaped rock at the distance. (Maybe it's just me…)

I glanced forward to the current direction of the carriage. Milk Road. I frowned at the sight of the gates at its entrance.

When I set off with Cremia to Clock Town to make a delivery of hers, well… first, Milk Road was blocked, so we had to take a detour through the Gorman Track. I don't like that place in the very least. Don't know how to explain it, but could feel the malice of the two big nosed brothers miles away.

Then these two 'masked' bandits showed up. They tried to steal Epona, but I drove them away easily.

We passed through Milk Road's gate, and to my relief, that infernal smell has gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milk Road ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cremia commanded Epona and her horse, Jack to stop.

"Mmm…"

"What do you see up ahead?"

"Yup, the road isn't blocked anymore."

I stood up from the inside of the wagon and arched my back. "They knew it was for the better." Then, jumped out from the wagon and glanced at both sides; no one else was around. It's safe now.

"You see? It wasn't necessary to accompany me all the way here…" Cremia said.

"I wanted to get sure that the road wasn't blocked anymore so you could pass without worry."

"But I feel like I'm slowing you down…"

"Your safety is above everything else."

She went red after I said that and turned away casually, and so I did after realize what I said.

Why I tend to be romantic with people that I don't see like an actual crush? Why can't I be like this with Mia? Or maybe Cremia is…

I blushed even harder at the thought.

(Umm, no time for existential matters now)

"I… better leave now…"

"You won't be taking Epona with you?" She asked with a concerned tone.

"Nah, the swamp isn't too far away from here. She'll come to me if I call her anyway. She can stay at the ranch meanwhile, right?"

"Of course she can! You are always welcome too."

"Really? Thanks! I appreciate it a lot!"

I approached Epona and petted her head. "Goodbye girl, see ya soon."

"Neigh…" (Just don't get killed.)

I waved at Cremia. "Bye!"

"Come back soon to know that you are Ok Alex, please…" She worriedly said while waving.

The carriage started moving and so, I started walking towards Termina Field.

I sighed. "A little walk always does good…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I tried my best to not go near the grassy field, just stared at the strange shaped rock pinned in the ground far away in the middle of it. I was far enough to not smell the scent.

I was still puzzled because Cremia couldn't smell that odor of burned plastic that highlighted above everything else around. Maybe it's my imagination?

No, it can't. It's authentic because I smelt it before many times in that same area. There's no mistaking it.

But still, am I the only one who can smell it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Southern Termina Field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway, to other things, Mr. Barten was the same as always, mocking me.

_**(Flashback)**_

Just before leaving the last milk container to the bar, which I was carrying to the table, Cremia and Mr. Barten were talking about their business, when…

"…Yeh… and when you two are getting married!?" Mr. Barten said, out of the nowhere.

"Mr. Barten!" Cremia shouted in sheepish way and blushed.

I, on the other hand, struggled to not make the container fall after hearing such embarrassing words.

Mr. Barten was more than satisfied to see our reactions. He was on the floor, laughing like a maniac…

_**(Sudden end of flashback)**_

(…Someone is watching me…)

And near. I continued walking, aware of the surroundings, until I heard dog-like panting just behind me. I stopped walking.

(A Wolfos?)

I turned. It wasn't a Wolfos though. It was a simple wolf. No, it wasn't simple. This one was had golden colored fur and red, piercing eyes and radiated a strange looking light all around its body. I was still at awe, looking it with defiance.

It just sat there, looking at me.

(What does he want?) I took a step back.

He reacted badly to that, he snarled with the same defiance and charged towards me. I had to act fast. I didn't know why, but didn't actually wanted to hurt him so, instead of unsheathing my sword, I got my right hand to my back, searching for my shield.

To my misfortune, I didn't have my shield on my back that time.

My eyes widened when the wolf was just inches away from me and realized that I was screwed.

The golden wolf jumped to my face, launching a bite that didn't come. In that thousandth of second, I felt the wolf's breath in my face, and everything that my eyes could perceive faded to white, a white that consumed everything in my sight.

….

When I opened my eyes, I immediately stood up from the floor to see that I wasn't in the same place anymore.

Everything was covered in a deep mist that made my sight pretty limited. White was the perfect word to describe this place. Despite the mist, at the distance, I could see a castle, a castle… and a mountain…

"What kind of swordsman is one that doesn't have a shield ready to protect itself?" A ghostly voice said at my side.

I turned. It was a talking skeleton with armor and sword and shield ready on its hands. Decayed flesh was to be seen. Its gaze was penetrating with its left eye glowing red. I took a step back scared.

"W-where did you bring me?"

"This place is known as the Ghostly Ether by the living…"

"I've heard before… you were in my dreams…What are you…?"

"I want to see if you are worthy of your linage…Bring your shield out." He said without missing a single beat.

I obeyed him. I got out my shield from my endless pouch and got it ready on my right arm.

He then got in battle position. I reacted unsheathing my sword. He covered himself with his huge shield, like waiting for me to do the first hit.

(If that's what he wants…) I tried an horizontal slash, that made my sword bounce against his shield. He then send a vertical slash at me that hit me right in the head.

"Ah!"

That hurt a lot. Luckily, his sword didn't had a sharp edge, and just left me with a huge hit on the head.

"You don't have reflexes."

"I wasn't waiting for you to hit me on the head!"

"What a poor excuse. You go around, thinking you are the best swordsman ever known but can't evade a simple vertical slash."

"You know nothing about me! Shut up!" I charged towards him ready to attack.

I tried another horizontal slash, but he jumped rightways out of the way. I quickly turned and sent a stab that he blocked with his shield. He tried another vertical slash to my shoulder, but I blocked it with my shield. That leaved his guard down and could hit him with a spin attack. He turned his back to endure the hit.

"What you think about that huh?"

In a blink, he spun back to me and pointed his sword to my face. He had just stopped a direct slash to my face.

"See? You are slow."

"Shut up!"

I tried to slash him, but he jumped away. I tried it again, and again, but he kept jumping at the sides to evade my attacks."

"You have to know where your opponent is going to move. It's impossible to perform a slice like you are doing now if your enemy can move swiftly in combat."

He then, after a jump, rolled behind me, and tried to perform a helm splitter, but I knew what he was going to do; I quickly protected my front with my shield.

After the huge noises of steel, against metal, he stopped moving.

"And you think you can gather the elements with such a bad skill of fighting?"

"How do you know that?"

"…"

"Who are you…?"

"I'm here to see if you are capable to take on such difficult quest."

"That doesn't tells me anything, I want you to answer me; who are you!?" At this point I was getting angry.

"I can't tell you just yet." He simply added.

I was sick of hearing that, I want to know the truth! What is he? Why am I here? Why I'm the only one who smells that horrible scent? What does the salesman knows about my grandfather? Who is the salesman? Why I'm having those horrible nightmares? Why do I have to gather the elements quickly?

I have asked all these questions, but I don't know the answer for any of them, thing that enraged me.

"No! I had enough of doing questions and not receiving answers! I want to know the truth!" I spoke with true anger in my voice.

"Yes… get angry… just like that…"

I charged at him, but he kept evading my attacks! I was getting desperate. Anything I do doesn't ends up like I wanted ever since I landed a foot on Termina! And that was driving me insane!

I grunted furiously after every failed attack. The birthmark at the back of my left hand was burning again, and that didn't help me to calm down in the least bit.

"Get angry…"

"Shut UP!" My birthmark burned even harder that I thought that my gauntlet could burst in flames.

He stopped moving, and so I did.

"You are too weak to have that many lives depending on you." The ghostly warrior said.

That done it. The blood rose to my head. Still, with sword and shield on hand, I clenched my fists very hard. I frowned in anger. The burn of the birthmark was almost unbearable.

But something happened that cancelled my anger from going further.

I got that much angry to the point of almost scream, but stopped when a golden sparkles that didn't lasted long appeared around my body. Those sparkles I saw in just a middle of second drained all the energy of my body in a flash.

I let go my grip of my sword and fell on my knees and panted for air. I was weak. My sword fell to the misty floor.

What the hell happened to me? I don't know…

I heard the steps of the ghostly swordsman until he stopped in front of me. I raised my head and accepted defeat before my opponent.

"So… the powers of the Triforce of Courage have been passed to you after all…"

Again, he knows more about the subject than me. I kept silent.

"You have courage boy. You must use that courage to find power… and find it you must. Only then will you become the hero this world despairs. If you do find true courage, and you wish to save Termina from the horror it now faces… Then you will be worthy to brandish the elemental blade! Have this; you will need it soon, my child…"

He gave me a wooden bow with a quiver. It looked like it had been used many times in the past.

Though I l lost the battle, I accepted the bow gladly.

"I'll return you to the world of light now…"

My eyelids felt heavy, my body was weak. I passed out.

"My child…" His fading voice was heard.

...…...

I opened my eyes quickly to see where I was and stood up. "Huh…" I grabbed my head.

I was in the very same spot where I encountered the golden colored wolf. I had the bow that the ghostly swordsman gave me.

"What was that all about…?" I asked to one in particular while staring at the bow.

"Hmm… it serves me well!" I put the bow inside of my endless pouch. I still don't know how to use it well though, but i'll tell Romani to teach me later. She's a total professional at archery despite her age.

I never knew who that skeleton was… but I have heard him in my dreams before…

What he meant with the power of the Triforce of courage has been passed to me? Why I felt so weak that suddenly? What were those golden sparkles around my body?

Those were the newest additions to my catalogue of questions. I hope that the mask salesman can answer me those once I get him an element…

"The elements! I forgot!"

I continued my walk towards the southern swamp, where the **Wind Element** is supposed to be.

It's getting dark already. "Hmm… it's getting late… I better walk faster…"

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**The search for the wind element begins on the next chapter! it'll be interesting, you'll see why soon...**

**Hmm, a couple things i want to point out that doesn't relevance on the story at this point. **

**1.- Alex DOES know about Link's feats in Termina at this point.**

**2.-(doesn't matter for the story whatsoever) The encounter with the golden wolf and therefore, almost the whole chapter was intended to occur at Alex's visit to Ikana's graveyard. **

**What the future holds for Alex in the southern swamp? Find out next week! **

**...and review if you liked this chapter :D**

**EDIT: Wow! my first 20 reviews!**


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